


A Tale of Snowdrops

by saiyuri_dahlia



Category: YuYu Hakusho
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Lengthy Chapters, M/M, Touya Abuse, Yaoi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-07
Updated: 2013-02-10
Packaged: 2017-11-20 12:41:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 62,107
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/585529
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/saiyuri_dahlia/pseuds/saiyuri_dahlia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>'For the Tribe'. That is the motto Touya and his people have always lived by. You live only for the benefit of the tribe, nothing else. Touya never knew of any other existence...until the discovery of another tribe. And then, there was Jin…</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been a few years since I've posted this story and I'd like to think that I've hopefully grown a bit in my writing. There are parts of this story that I feel need changed or edited a little more. Most of the changes will be edits to Jin's accent and grammar and punctuation errors. As far as I know, nothing major or new material. 
> 
> Though I haven't had the chance to return to them yet, I still have side-stories for Snowdrops and I do plan on returning to my other Jin/Touya AU, "The Brine Child".

Story Title: A Tale of Snowdrops

Disclaimer: Jin and Touya are Yuu Yuu Hakusho characters. The others are not. I may or may not own them. Probably not.

-o-

Day One: In Which Spring and Winter Meet

-o-

Home, Jin's heart soared with yearning for his home. His ears, which even for his people were unusually slender and pointed, wiggled uncontrollably in the wake of his excitement of returning to the village as he and other young wind journeymen coursed the breeze to pull the Spring Tribe's supply carts briskly through the white mist that no wind can part. Though he could not see anything before him, thanks to the mists, Jin felt they were nearly home and trusted the Chief's word that as long as they walked no other direction than forward, they would reach the village.

The village was the only one in existence. The village lay beyond the mists and guarded by an enveloping forest. There were quaint cobblestone streets that went every whichy-way imaginable, big and little, as if the streets were made for and by the wind. There were humble, tipsy cedar bark houses with straw-thatch roofs. Over babbling, fishy rivers, there were arched wooden bridges. There were leafy trees and flowering trees. Everywhere there was something green or colorful growing in sight. The perfume of every copious flower and blossom waged war in the air for prevalence. The village in its full splendor was nothing less than beauty itself.

But what Jin enjoyed most was the sky, the big blue he often called it. Up in the clear sky, a friendly wind whipping around him, and the warm sun to his smooth back made the old trek across the mists worth taking. That or resting in the meadows, a breeze making the long grass flap against his strong body, a sweet hint of wildflowers in the air, and the occasional petal blossom flurrying past wasn't too bad a way to spend an afternoon either, especially on a full stomach.

The mists were funny about food. Nothing spoiled. Ever. Even things that should have a long time ago looked the same as it did when the Spring Tribe left the village. They had food and plenty of it, yes, but nothing had a taste. Nothing was worth eating, if anybody _had_ the urge to eat, that is. Strangely, Jin, a fellow who loved putting down a good meal or two, rarely thought about food while in the mists. The whole tribe was like that. They only ate to remind themselves that they should, since not being able to enjoy taste or feel full killed any comfort eating once gave. Eating just became something else to pass the time. Jin wanted to taste again. He wanted the need to eat again.

With all the extra energy in his body making him feel like wriggling like a worm out of mud, he knew they were home. As the mist began to thin, Jin overheard the collective startled gasps of his tribe traveling ahead of him. _Must be a-right sight this time 'round_ , Jin thought.

Until the cold hit him.

Jin clenched his eyes shut and muttered nonsense under his breath until the initial sting of the cold wind passed. The harsh, bright white landscape burned his sight at first but he soon recovered. Jin had never seen this white matter that curiously coated the ground and mounded in the bare tree branches but it simultaneously numbed and burned the soles of his thinly-protected feet like cold fire.

He wondered whether it was safe to go on while his tribe asked their chief the same question. The Chief of the Spring Tribe was impressive, even with his climbing age starting to erode his luster. Though he stood no taller than Jin, who passed into adulthood during the tribe's last stay in the village, it was not his size that gave the Chief his command. It was a bright look in his larkspur-colored eyes, an internal youthful wildness that had never worn down with maturity.

The Chief turned and spoke to the tribe. "No mistakin' the fear in ev'rybody's eyes, that I see well. A mite peculiar the forest be, but no weak souls among us. We'll steady on to the village as we always have. A wee chill won't tamper the Spring Tribe." The Chief said, notably tucking his hands underneath his long, heavy fox-colored beard as he led the tribe onward.

Taking up the task of towing again, Jin smiled when he heard and felt the white matter crunch beneath his feet. No one else bore his cheerful curiosity to their changed surroundings. He knew the crackling of branches was nothing to fear. Jin breathed the crisp air and felt how the cold tightened his throat and chest, yet opened his body and senses. He watched his breath exhale out as white flurry and marveled if this was what his breath always looked like, if this changed land gave him the Sight to perceive his life's breath as it truly was. The tribe was wary and fearful of the changes. Jin was not. The forest had become odd, yes, but it was full of wondrous things.

As the white ash, as Jin's people called the specks of white matter descending from the gray dawn, fell around them, the tribe halted at the top of the hill and looked in dismay at what had befallen their village. Their streets and homes were blanketed in layers of white ash. Their tipsy homes were now sodden, frail gray shanties. The bare trees were knobby, bony hands clawing toward the dead sky. There were no flowers. Their village had been reduced to a blanched skeleton of its former grandeur. Even the light within the village was dim and lackluster. The Spring Tribe overcame with shock and fear. Even ever-happy Jin could not bring himself to smile gazing at the devastating transformation to his home. But that was not the end of the Spring Tribe's worries…

There were signs of people in the village.

The Chief called for two volunteers to accompany him into the village. Jin dropped his cart immediately, leapt into the air, and flailed his arms wildly about. The Chief did not choose him. He wouldn't. The Chief took with him their wind master and the elder female wind journeyman to Jin's right instead. Jin knew he was not ignored for his lack of skill, being one of the tribe's strongest wind journeymen along with being an exceptional fighter, but that he was passed over because the Chief did not see him as an adult or trusted him to handle the situation seriously. Yes, Jin was a bit of a clown but he could be entrusted with heavy matters as any other warrior, as the wind journeymen basically were. Jin just needed to convince the rest of his tribe of that.

The Chief and his retinue left immediately. Jin and the rest of the Spring Tribe waited for their return on the hilltop. With more difficulty than they had ever experienced before, they built a few fires and huddled around the flames for much-needed warmth. Jin sat bored, jumpy to go off and explore the forest or sneak off into the village, but the tribe kept close eyes on him (and the other kids) and Jin was forced to wait.

After a long time, the Chief returned. He wasted no time explaining what had happened. "They call themself the Winter Tribe. So it be they walk the mists an' stay in this here village as we have. Spoke with their leader. All nods an' open ears he was, once he saw we meant no harm. He's agreed to share the village, seein' how they're a-leavin' soon an' all. Not many a' them, there are. Their leader assured me that we won't see hide 'er hair a' them an' they'll sneak out befer we do."

One scruffy red puffball turned to the other as murmurs of uncertainty and concerned glances of various blue (and a few violet) hues swept through the tribe. They trusted their Chief, but the idea of having to live beside this other tribe was unsettling to their hearts. In the far back, Jin could not stop grinning. He wanted to go already. He wanted to see the Winter Tribe.

After much discussion and finally concession, the Chief motioned for the tribe to move out, and the Spring Tribe trekked down the hill toward the village. All the way down, the Chief attempted to smooth over his people's doubts. "Keep a hale breeze inside ya. We're a su'prise too for them, y'know. Stout hearts for ev'rybody. It's home still. It be a wee different, that's all."

Jin wasn't certain if the Chief's words made any impact.

-o-

 _A couple of minutes away won't harm a thing_ , Jin snickered as he scuttled sideways unobserved down one of the village's many narrow alleys toward the part of the village occupied by the Winter Tribe. _Plenty strong arms already there ta help unload carts, so it be no biggie if me two arms go a-missin'._

He slid with swaying steps from one alleyway to another, looking down bleak streets and peering around damp corners, but he found no one, not even tracks. Jin wasn't about to give up though. There were strangers in the village, and Jin was determined to see them. He searched and searched, and searched a little more, but still had no luck. Jin's 'few' minutes away quickly fell into hours, not that he paid attention to the time, or if he was aware, that he cared.

Passing by a spindly tangle of dead brown vines clinging to the side of a house, Jin stopped, his ears pricked and alert, and stood in the center of the street. _Been all over the place an' not seen a soul. Boy, they said they'd hide, an' that they did!_   Jin scanned his surroundings and rubbed his numbed arms for warmth. A bitter wind whipped through the street, chilling Jin to the bone. _That wind'll cut ya, it will. A nasty feelin', it's got. Dunno if me poor self can stand it much longer._

The Spring Tribe wasn't used to such frigid temperatures, not even at night. It was early afternoon in the village, and Jin had never felt colder. His dark sleeveless shirt and loose white pants were fine for training, but weren't thick and didn't provide much protection in the cold. Sure, he could have put on some warmer garments, but that would have meant staying and unloading the carts before he did, and Jin didn't have that sort of patience.

Jin continued to shiver and considered heading back. He would search again later, he told himself. Maybe it would even be warmer then. As he turned around, his ears perked and Jin stood still, noticing a water-stained shoji screen was ajar by a fraction. He smiled as it opened a hair more. _Finally! There be someone wantin' ta talk to ol' Jin._

He approached the house. "Hello there! Me name's Jin," he called, laughing through his grin.

Only a single eye was visible in the slit between the screen and its frame. Jin stood a step short of standing on the veranda amazed by the eye's slender feline shape. Its color, however, captivated him more. _Soared hundreds a' times up in the big blue, I have,_ he thought, his gaze unable to turn away from the observable eye as his mind imagined its twin, _an' nevah once saw a blue lighter than the clearest sky like that before. Nah, nothin' like those eyes. Like drops of rain, they are. No…that's not right. That be not enough water… Like a river, then, all held up an' squeezed into two round orbs without a drop gone a-miss…._

The loveliness, to his surprise, sharpened into cold hate. " _Go. Away,_ " the Winter Tribe boy said in a frigid tone that would have put the freezing wind to shame and slammed the shoji screen closed with a loud _clack!_

Jin was taken aback. He blinked as his mouth fell open in shock. "Go away?" Jin stamped his foot into the white matter. "Well, that's no way ta be!" he said, annoyance creeping into his voice. "I was only wantin' ta meet ya an' say hello an' all, bein' that we're neighbors for a little while."

There was no response from the Winter boy.

Jin stared into the shoji paper hard enough to bore holes and stamped his feet twice into the white ash, crunching loudly each time. Tired of standing, he took up to floating cross-legged in mid-air, holding his crossed ankles together, as the air around him whipped rapidly in tune with his rising annoyance. _I'm no bug, I am_ , he grumbled at the slight, _so I won't stand for bein' treated like one._

Jin's knitted brows started to relax as he reminded himself that this boy had been his first and only contact with the Winter Tribe, so this boy might be or might not be his only chance to make friends with the Winter Tribe. So far, he wasn't doing a good job of that if all he could focus on was the boy's rudeness. Not being able to look past a little unfriendliness was just an excuse to give up on trying, and Jin wasn't about to start making excuses.

He laughed to disperse his annoyance at the Winter boy's rudeness and also to show the boy he bore him no grudge. Laughing accomplished more than that—it brightened his cheer back to his regular good spirits. Jin brushed aside any ill will the boy had thrown at him and put on his usual broad grin.

_There's no excuse in gettin' hung up with hard feelin's when you're tryin' ta make friends. Get'cha nowhere, it does. 'Side's, don't want the boy goin' 'round sayin' ta his tribe, 'That Jin fellow is one right bitter guy'. No, can't have that be happenin'._

Jin laughed as he lowered himself back onto the ground and stepped toward the house. "Sorry 'bout that," he called out, "I wanna tell you that I be livin' nearby, I am, y'know, so when yer feelin' friendly—"

A blast of cold air rattled the shoji door in its frame. Jin froze in mid-step. _My… That be a_ fierce _air for sure! Aye, lots of power in him whirlin' round an' round, remindin' me a' me own wind tricks. He be a fun one ta toss about with, that be the truth._

He sensed the bladed energy behind the burst of air and slowly backtracked away from the house. "All right, Jin gets when he should shut up, I do. Be leavin' ya alone now. Be back sometime later, then."

Jin took flight. As he soared back toward his tribe's side of the village, he continued thinking about the boy from the Winter Tribe. Jin wished his first meeting with the Winter Tribe had gone better, but he was pleased enough to have met someone, even someone who didn't seem to like him all that much. 'Course, he often got into trouble and made his tribe angry at him, but they never stayed mad with him for long, so this boy wouldn't either, he figured. Besides, Jin wasn't about to completely go away.

If he gave up, how else would he ever again get to see those eyes bluer than the sky?

-o-

As he watched the strange red-haired boy fly away, Touya could not help but stare and smile softly. The boy _flew_. As easily as birds, the redheaded boy was up in the air as naturally to him as whistling shards of ice was to Touya. Touya knew some tricks with ice, yes, but he wished he could fly. Even if it meant trading all his skills with ice, he would, just to learn to fly. If he could fly, he could run away.

As he continued to think on the prospect of flying, Touya bowed his head, his small smile crushed into a soft frown, as he realized how foolish the idea was and how futile it was for him to waste time sitting and dreaming of something that would never happen. Touya was not like that smiling redheaded boy who was so comfortable in the air. Even if it was possible—and it wasn't—and he learned how to fly, Touya knew he was bound to be awkward in the sky and would never fly very well. Touya was no bird. Except, perhaps, a caged one, and caged birds do not fly.

"Touya!"

Startled by the sudden, sharp whisper of his name, Touya jumped inside his heavy white kimono and turned his head toward the voice's owner. The young Winter boy relaxed, seeing it was only his cousin squatted down beside him.

"Hyou, don't scare me like that," he said, throwing his cousin an chilly glare. Though he tried to keep his emotions perfectly obscured like everyone in his tribe, Touya could not hide the light pink flush of embarrassment tinting his pale cheeks. He was caught being idle, no denying that, though only by his older cousin.

Hyou was still in his training clothes—a skin-tight ice blue body stocking covered by a sleeveless, short-length white kimono, white _tabi_ socks _,_ and animal-hide sandals. From the mussed look of his unbound shoulder-length hair—the palest shade of light blue, a color like that of winter sunlight reflected through an ice dagger and much lighter than Touya's own, and the dirt smudges on his pale, pointed face (not nearly as angular as his father's, at least not yet…) and his laxly tied training clothes, Hyou must have been practicing with the apprentices.

By practicing, he meant wrestling. If the ice master, Hyou's father, had been present, he never would have condoned wrestling—wrestling being a foolish act of barbarism the elegant art of ice manipulation had no need to incorporate within its teachings—nor would he have allowed his son to appear so unkempt before the rest of the tribe. Touya was surprised Hyou had made it back and into the house in such a disheveled, unbecoming manner without an elder's reprimanding.

Hyou sat down beside him. The way his cousin sat—bending and setting his knees on the floor without so much a ruffling in a single poised motion—distinctly reminded him of his uncle's inherent contained grace. Hyou's grace, however, possessed a strong air of rehearsal to it. Still the similarity was enough to off-put Touya.

"It is _your_ fault you were scared." Hyou narrowed his feline eyes and smiled like a wildcat would before pouncing on a snowy rabbit. "You got lost in that big head of yours again, didn't you?"

Hyou poked the center of his forehead hard, hard enough to make Touya wince. Watching his face grimace in pain only made Hyou grin more.

"Too much thinking is bad for you, you know that? You should listen to my father. If you had, you would not have been scared. Father says to never drop your guard, to always observe and be aware of your surroundings, and always be ready to strike even in your own home. If I had been one of _them_ …" Touya followed Hyou's tightly controlled gaze pointing in the direction of the other tribe's houses, "…you would be dead, little cousin."

Touya canted his eyes. "You sound too much like Uncle when you talk like that." There was a light hint of concern voiced in his words, but he doubted Hyou was perceptive enough to pick up on it. Touya would be right.

Haughtily, Hyou raised his head and peered down at him with a superior smile. "That's good then. My father is a wise man, even wiser than our chief. At least, my father knows the other tribe is dangerous. He would not have allowed those beasts to stay. He would have killed them immediately."

"I am…not convinced." Touya said. "Perhaps Uncle is wrong—"

Hyou cut off Touya's words with a withering glare. Though Hyou's handsome face was a perfect emotionless mask of ice, Touya could see the blizzard whirling in his pale gray eyes. Hyou would not hit him, but Touya could see the threat was imminent.

"Do not dare speak ill of my father in his own home," he said firmly. As if the sight of Touya disgusted him, Hyou averted his gaze, shifting it to the right of Touya, and released a curt snort out of his flared nostrils. "Besides, what do _you_ know? You're ignorant of the other tribe. My father saw them. He was there with the Chief when he first laid eyes on them and he told me they were savages. Big, furry-headed savages with loud voices and huge mouths that could swallow someone your size in one gulp." He grinned again, the wildcat once more unleashed to prey on vermin.

Maybe his uncle told Hyou that and maybe not. Probably not. The story was too sensational for his uncle's austere sensibilities, and having spent most of his childhood terrorized by Hyou's horror stories, Touya could tell when he was spinning a yarn just to scare him. Two problems rallied against Hyou's tale. First, Touya wasn't a gullible kid anymore. Second, Hyou didn't know he had already seen someone from the other tribe. And it was rare Touya had this sort of advantage over his cousin.

Touya raised his head and spoke confidently in front of Hyou, "But I _saw_ one of them, cousin. A boy our age. He was standing outside, and he was _not_ _exactly_ what you claimed Uncle said they were."

At that, Hyou cracked his restrained mask and slightly curled his upper lip. But he soon recovered, drew his emotions back, and froze them once more. "What did he say, Touya?" Hyou intentionally forced his voice to sound mildly interested. "If he was capable of communicating intelligent speech to you, that is…."

"He has an odd manner of speaking…but I could understand him well enough," Touya peered down as he thought and plucked details as they came to him, " A little loud but he was friendly. Still I guarded myself and prevented him from drawing close. The boy said he wanted only to meet me and talk…" Touya's words trailed off as he watched his cousin's cruel mouth frown in disapproval.

"You cannot know that for certain, Touya. He could have been lying, trying to trick you, and _you_ would have believed him," Hyou said, giving Touya a frosty stare he recognized as one of his uncle's stares, one he would have used if someone, namely Touya, had been incredibly foolish.

"Th-that might not be true…" Touya was flustered, the pink deepening throughout his cheeks. He bowed his head below Hyou's gaze and with little certainty said, "…I do not think he was trying to trick me, cousin."

"That is your problem, Touya," Hyou said, rising from sitting on the floor in another elegant, but practiced, motion. "…You _think_ too much."

Hyou left exiting briskly, presumably off to his room. That left Touya sitting alone for an instant before he too rose from his seat and made his way toward his room—well, the small screened off portion of the servants' quarters designated as his space—to change into his training clothes and go off to practice his ice manipulation by himself.

-o-

Jin could hear the boys yelling before he even touched ground and he already knew which boys they were. He supposed it was due to his own childlike nature that the children of his tribe were friends with him, and he liked tossing around with every one of them. Jin didn't really get along with anybody his own age—they were too serious and eager to be adults that they no longer found his pranks and games amusing. Adults preferred to treat him like a child and never like one of them. It wasn't like he was incapable of being an adult. He just never needed to be one.

The kids sensed Jin didn't fit with anybody else but them, and with there being so many of them (the kids were like a tribe within the tribe), the kids adopted him and he swiftly became their resident hero. They listened to him, were ready to play or help in a prank, and often followed him around in a great pack, and Jin didn't mind being with them. They were his little brothers and sisters, and he was their big goofy brother.

Sliding the shoji screen door shut behind him, he padded down the dusty hallway following the sound of the belligerent commotion and slid the screen for the small room open. Sure enough, it was Wara and Shii screaming and fussing at each other like usual. If it weren't for their eyes, Jin wouldn't have been able to tell where their faces were—their red faces blending right in with their red hair. Jin didn't expect to see but was glad Magi, Shii's older sister, was there. She handled the boys, but even this fight seemed beyond her power to control. Magi, who wore her hair in two small puffball ponytails, had her tiny fingers in her ears and her round baby face crunched up like a ball of parchment.

"All right!" Jin called and the boys shut up mid-scream and paid attention. Even though he was the adult and was supposed to be serious, Jin grinned as he crouched down to the boys' level, "Just what are ya little bug-eaters spattin' an' hissin' over now? Ev'rybody be workin' hard an' here you two go disturbin' the peace an' give ev'rybody a-right big ache in the head. So now, what be it this time? Out wit it."

"Wara's bein' stupid," Shii grumbled, his eyes blanketed under his red fringe. He was shortest of the three children and still carried a bit of baby fat in his cheeks and on his stubby frame.

"Am not!" Wara turned and screamed. He was a gangling, spidery child with long, long arms and legs but not much of a torso. Though Magi still was taller than him by an inch right now, Wara was growing fast and it wouldn't be long before the boy towered over most of the kids.

The boys were once again back at yelling.

Jin put his arms between the boys and parted them, "Aye, aye, enough. … Now _I'm_ startin' to get a pain in me head. Come now. No more tuggin' ol' Jin along blind. What's the problem?"

Now the boys refused to speak. They turned their backs on one another and crossed their arms defiantly across their chests. Jin hung his head. He was good at making kids laugh and entertaining them, not at being a mediator and solving their disputes. He usually let all the kids deal with their own problems among one another, and eventually all ran its course back to normal. This was only the third time Jin had ever stepped in to stop an argument, and he hadn't chosen to do it. He had done it out of impulse.

Magi, standing with her cheeks puffed out in annoyance, shifted her gaze from her little brother to Wara. Finally fed up, she stamped her foot and spoke bluntly, "Neither a' ya are gonna tell him? Geez, you're both babies, ya are." She quickly looked over at Jin. "They be fightin' over what the other tribe look like. So stupid, right?"

Shii held his hair away from his eyes and faced Magi. "Is not stupid, sis! Wara's wrong! They be little people in white, tinier than us, an' they're invisible."

"If they're _invisible_ , how do ya know how tall they be?" Wara replied, his head raised haughtily. "Shii, ya dunno a thing. They be giants, white furry giants covered in white ash."

Jin barely contained his laughter to himself. Neither boy was right, of course, but accuracy was probably not what they were aiming for. Shii and Wara liked to make up stories, so obviously they decided to make one up about the other tribe and they got hung up on what their other tribe would be, so it seemed. Agreeing with either one of them wasn't going to fix their problem, but Jin knew a way they could fix it themselves.

"'Stead a' punishin' ev'rybody else by screamin'," Jin said as he straightened and stood, "…go out and settle your differences fist-fightin'. Get all that which ails ya in a good hard drag-out fight. Aye, be wise ta go hav' it out where no one can hear 'er see ya well, though. Don't want pryin' eyes stoppin' ya mid-fight, right me boys?"

The boys' faces were beaming as they looked up at him, thanked him for his advice, and ran out the room. Jin quickly poked his head into the hall.

"No goin' for the eyes! An' stop before ya kill the other!" he called, half-laughing out loud, as he watched the boys eagerly charge off grinning.

 _Fixed that, I did!_ he grinned proudly and laughed. _No sense in two healthy boys standin' 'round barkin' anyway!_

Jin felt a small tug on his hand. Magi, her face angry and her eyes sharp, stood beside him and gestured to him to squat down. He thought she looked a little odd, seeing how he just got the boys all settled for her. "Now what be your problem, kiddo?" he asked, still smiling.

Magi wasted no time and banged her small fist hard on top of his head. "What an idiot ya are!" the little girl shouted with a big voice. "Great advice, Jin…'cept now I gotta go watch over them ta make sure nobody dies." Magi stomped out of the room, muttering something about boys always having to fight, and chased after Wara and Shii down the hall.

Jin stood, rubbing the sore bump near his tiny horn. _Guess I be not made for advice-makin'… 'Suppose it be all well an' good then if I stick ta what I'm good at for now..._ Jin felt and heard his stomach rumbling. He grinned. _Whaddya know…somethin' I'm good at, hahaha._

-o-

Touya had just finished putting away his training clothes when his cousin appeared around the three-paneled beige paper screen dividing his meager living space from the rest of the servants' sleeping quarters. Hyou had washed, so it appeared, and changed out of his training uniform and into a single-colored misty blue kimono. Touya noticed its thickness and length and saw it was a kimono worn only indoors. Along with a change of attire, Hyou had his hair combed and drawn up into a traditional topknot.

Hyou casually crossed his pale arms over his chest. "Where have you been, little cousin?" His faux concern was so dripped in ridicule Touya had second guesses attributing the word to his voice. It didn't seem right really. "…I have been looking all over for you." Hyou grinned another predatory smirk.

 _Have another lie to weave? Or do you feel like stabbing my forehead some more?_ is what Touya wanted to say but didn't. Couldn't, even if he wanted to. Closing the lid of the worn, scratched oak chest, Touya, sitting on his knees, turned away from it and reluctantly faced his cousin. Any news that made Hyou smile like that would not bode well for him.

"What is it that you need, Hyou?" he asked with a weariness in his voice that said he wanted to get whatever Hyou was here for over and finished.

But Hyou wasn't giving up the game yet. He was enjoying himself too much. He was unusually visibly excited. Hyou was more animated than he usually allowed himself to be. Which meant only one thing…

Touya was in BIG trouble.

Except he hadn't done anything. Nothing he was aware of. He had completed all his chores—washed, dried, and polished all the floors and the veranda, ran his uncle's messages, cleared the ash from the fire pit in Uncle's private reflection room, caught fish and gathered roots for their storage supplies, and, and… Was there something he had forgotten? Touya ran through the whole long list again and found nothing he had overlooked. So if he wasn't in trouble for something he hadn't done, it was for something he had done then… Except Touya hadn't done anything out of line. He held his head down, kept his mouth shut, and pretended not to exist around adults just as he was supposed to.

"Father wishes to speak with you, " Hyou finally said.

Touya swallowed dryly.

Well, it wasn't much of a hint to what he had done, except he had done something to his uncle's displeasure, so that narrowed the possibilities down to…everything. He hated Touya. It was no overstatement—it was known fact his uncle despised his being, and he often found ways to punish Touya for things others, namely Hyou, had done.

And if there was nothing at hand his uncle could blame on him, he would punish him for future disobedience. He was taking 'preventive' measures, his uncle would say, 'to discourage the boy from attempting any action or displaying certain behaviors that would outright or ultimately dishonor the tribe'. It wasn't as if all this so-called precautionary deterrence was justified—Touya had done nothing to his uncle, his family, or to the tribe. All this bad blood was only because of his parents' dishonor to the tribe, not of Touya's fault, but Touya bore the burden of his birth in any case.

Touya submerged his emotions as best he could under a thin sheet of ice and hoped for the good that it would not crack under his uncle's gaze. "Where does Uncle wish to speak with me?" he asked, perfectly detached.

"I am to escort you to Father's reflection room," Hyou drawled. "You better come along now. You do not want to keep Father waiting."

 _Of course not…_ Touya groaned and rose to standing.

He reluctantly followed behind Hyou out of the servants' quarters and down the hall toward the ice master's wing—thankfully, Hyou didn't say another word the entire way. Having the daily task of clearing the ash out of the fire pit, Touya already knew the way to his uncle's reflection room without Hyou's guidance, but this was no casual chat but a formal summons, and Hyou's father was a pedant for formality.

Once they reached the entrance to the reflection room, Hyou turned to Touya and gestured to him to sit and wait outside. Touya didn't really need the reminder, having the all the customs and traditions of the tribe ingrained in him from an early age. He knew just as well as Hyou (who often broke such practices when he could get away with it) to sit outside and out of view until the master of the house granted permission to enter. Touya sat and so did Hyou in front of him.

Hyou then said, "Father, it is your son and heir calling upon your door."

For a few moments, there was silence.

"My son and heir is welcome to appear in my presence," the ice master replied.

Hearing the unmistakable cultured drawl, the sharp winter wind, of his uncle's voice, Touya shuddered. He had to be honest with himself—Touya feared his uncle. Most of the tribe did, even if no one dared to say so. Touya's mask of ice was already cracking and for good reason. His uncle was a dangerous man.

Hyou slid the shoji screen open, stepped inside, and lowered himself elegantly onto the tatami floor. He bowed to his father. Once given permission to rise, Hyou rose and sat proper.

"I have done what you have commanded of me, Father," Hyou said.

"Bring him in," was all Touya's uncle said.

Hyou pivoted on his knees and cleared the entranceway for Touya to enter.

At first, Touya considered coming into the room adopting the manner of a polite stranger, seeing how he was by most standards just that in his family, but he decided the demeanor of a repentant servant would be more appropriate and was more accurate to his position within the household.

Touya didn't know what he had done wrong (though he considered he was being punished for Hyou's unkempt appearance earlier, since he was Hyou's attendant—when he wasn't busy with chores or at his uncle's command), but he knew he had to beg forgiveness to stave off a harsher punishment, and the overall problem with taking the manners of a polite stranger was that it required Uncle to defer a little respect to Touya, respect he knew his uncle did not have for him.

With his first step inside, Touya felt the abnormal chill in the room, noticing his uncle had ordered all the doors open to the outdoors for some peculiar reason, as he dropped to his knees and bowed to the room. His bow did not require the refinement or grace that Hyou's bow needed. Touya only needed to be submissive. In fact, the sloppier Touya appeared only helped him fulfill the role of the pitiful repentant servant.

The room, no larger than any other room, seemed large to Touya because it was empty. There were no clothes chests, supply crates, or sleeping pelts and such lying around to clutter the room. Save the ancient fire pit in the center of the room and the _tokonoma_ alcove proudly displaying the hanging scroll proclaiming the tribe's motto, 'For the Tribe', boldly in dark blue ink, the room was bare.

When his uncle indicated he could rise, Touya, taking the stance of a lowly servant, raised up onto the balls of his feet and scurried across the floor, his head bowed and eyes never looking from the floor, to his place across from his uncle.

Once again, he bowed, deeper than before, to his uncle. He heard but did not see Hyou close the shoji screen. Until his uncle allowed him, Touya could not rise. He hoped he was not noticeably quivering.

He expected his uncle to begin addressing him next, but his cousin foolishly thought his purist father would break tradition and allow him to remain.

"Son, your presence is no longer required," the ice master said. And if Touya knew his uncle, he wouldn't have made eye contact with his son.

"But Father—" Hyou whined.

Hyou wanted to stay, to watch his father discipline Touya no doubt. If there was any good side, Touya considered, to his uncle's punishments, it was that they were carried out in private.

"Do not make me speak twice, Hyou," the ice master warned. And that was all he needed to.

Touya could feel his uncle's glacial glare without looking up. The feel alone was enough to run cold fear down his spine. If Hyou's eyes were from a wildcat, Hyou's father's translucent gray eyes were from a wolf. And whereas wolves bit flesh with fangs, Hyou's father bit with stares. More and more, Touya dreaded being in this room. If there was any proper tradition to allow him to run out of the room or disappear, Touya would have gladly taken that course, but alas, there was not.

"…Yes, of course, Father." Hyou made a short, polite bow. "How very rude of me. Please excuse me. I will take my leave now."

Touya heard the shoji slide open and close, but he doubted Hyou had really left. No doubt he was listening behind the door or somewhere nearby in the hall. Hyou wouldn't pass up such grand, delightful entertainment, especially when its focus would be on making Touya suffer.

When the room was clear and the house quiet, his uncle gave him the indication he could rise. Touya, though careful not to make eye contact, secretly snuck glances at his uncle while his uncle watched the dimming fire in the pit shrivel and sputter.

Touya regarded his uncle's appearance as an odd mix of severity and delicateness. He was a handsome man with a face of ice carved out in a series of sharp, precise lines. He had stark, high cheekbones, and slender, deep-set gray wolf eyes, but his refined beauty and sense of grace belied the coldness of his heart. His hair, the same stark light blue as his son's, was sleek and orderly bound and arranged, part of which was drawn up into a small topknot while the rest fell past his shoulders and ended at mid-back.

It was difficult to tell under a heavy dark blue kimono and a white hakama that Touya's uncle was actually a petite-framed man, lean but strong nonetheless for his body size. His skin was deathly pale and fair and the only color in his face was a faint blue tinge to his withered lips and cheeks. His slit mouth seemed permanently downturned into a hard scowl. Rarely did Touya's uncle ever smile, and the few times that he had ever did not turn out well for Touya. He had learned to fear his uncle's smile.

His uncle had yet to speak, the fact of which disturbed Touya. His uncle sat stoking the embers smoldering in the fire pit until the glowing ashes rekindled into an adequate-sized flame. Then his uncle drew back the flowing sleeve of his dark blue kimono with his left and picked up in his right a generous handful of fresh pine needles, a small mound of which was sitting on an oblong plate next to his uncle that Touya had happened to notice just now, and scattered the needles into the fire.

The smell of burning pine consumed the room as Touya's uncle tossed hand after hand of green pine needles into the pit. Touya now realized why the doors were open to the outside—they were for ventilation. Touya understood the importance of the ritual—his uncle was purifying and cleansing the house of evil—but the smoke choked him, made him cough, and turned his eyes red and watery. He hated the stench, not of the pine itself, just the stink of pine ablaze, but his uncle didn't appear to be bothered. Not like he was going to stop the rite for his sake…

Once finished, his uncle leaned back, rested his hands palms-flat above his knees, and sat with his eyes shut. Touya knew not to speak, but he began to wonder, as time dragged on, when his uncle was going to begin scolding him. Touya still wasn't sure what he had done yet and was hoping to find out soon.

When the last of the pine needle's smoke dispersed, his uncle drew away from meditation, opened his eyes, and cast an unfeeling gaze at Touya.

"Each one of us of our tribe," his uncle said without a hint of emotion, "is but a flake of snow in a single mound. Though we may have fallen from the sky in our own winding way, our individual objectives have always been to add ourselves by any means and join our brothers and sisters in the mound below. Just as a long snowfall builds a hefty mound, our people must drive and coalesce for the growth and prosperity of the tribe. When outside forces press against us, our tribe does not scatter. We come together. Just as the snow packs under our heavy soles, we do not crumble."

Once he finished speaking, his uncle slipped into another meditative silence, leaving Touya to stare at their warped reflections in the polished wooden floor. He braced himself. His uncle often did not start his reprimands so calmly and in the same manner and voice as he uses to instruct.

Touya ran through his uncle's words over again in his mind. He didn't understand… Touya had done nothing wrong and certainly was not against the tribe. They were his people, and his uncle and Hyou were his only living family. He followed whatever the Chief, his uncle, and any adult said and ordered of him. As every member was supposed to, Touya lived for the tribe. But his uncle had left him very bewildered.

His uncle opened his eyes, only to immediately narrow them sharply. "Hyou tells me more distressing news about you, nephew." His uncle's voice turned steely and cold, his face etched with disapproval. "Touya, are you my brother's son?" he said in an accusing tone. "Is there some reason you find it so important to set yourself against the tribe?"

"No, no, sir," Touya attempted to placate the swelling freeze in the air. "I am not nor will I never be against the tribe. The will of the tribe is my own, Uncle," Touya said, keeping his gaze and head bowed.

Hyou was not to be ever trusted then. Hyou must have said Touya did not agree with his uncle's opinions and that he had spoken ill of his uncle. Touya reprimanded himself and regretted saying anything now—he knew it was a death sentence, but he thought he could somehow trust Hyou, being he was family and the only person who ever socialized with Touya. Trusting Hyou, what a foolish notion that was. Who knows what lies he twisted about Touya and the boy from the other tribe… Hyou probably didn't mention that Touya had kept the boy at bay. He probably turned it to that Touya was conspiring with the boy instead.

Touya never felt the shade of death draw so near before.

"Our tribe is only as strong as its weakest member, and you, Touya, are _very_ _weak_." His uncle allowed his shriveled upper lip to curl with disgust. "Permitting the other tribe, and their unknown dangers, to come in such close proximity to you and this family is _appalling_ ," his uncle drawled bitterly. "As you stand now, I cannot trust you to guard a tea kettle, and I cannot or will not graduate you to the journeyman level. You will remain an apprentice until you learn to truly devote yourself to the will and honor of the tribe."

Unable to show a risk of weakness as he listened to his uncle speak, Touya mentally sighed in relief. If Hyou had planted the smallest hint of Touya conspiring with the boy, His uncle would have declared him a traitor to the tribe and Touya would have been killed. _Perhaps my crooked cousin_ does _have a shred of consciousness after all,_ he considered. … _Unless he's saving the lie to blackmail me later._

Now _that_ sounded more like something Hyou would do.

"I-I understand, sir." Touya quickly gave a deep bow. "Thank you for taking the time and teaching me such an important lesson. I will take your words to heart and carve their meaning upon its flesh. I will not disappoint you, Uncle."

His uncle closed his eyes and did not respond. Touya had no doubt that his uncle did not share any faith in his promise.

He gave Touya the silent indication he could rise and leave. As he scurried back and slid the shoji screen open, his uncle spoke. "Remember these words, young nephew," his uncle said forlornly. "…A snowflake unsheltered by its kind cannot survive. It will melt into water and fade."

It was an old phrase but it was one he had heard countless times. Knowing its meaning well, Touya sat frozen for several moments in front of the open door and did not turn around. "Understood. Thank you, Uncle," he replied in a melancholy tone. He exited, turned and bowed one more time from the hallway to his uncle, and closed the shoji door.

Slowly and gloomily making his way back to the servants' quarters to change back into his training clothes, Touya hoped he could elude Hyou along the way and hide in the forest and get better at his ice manipulation. Typically after Touya spent any extended time in the company of his father, Hyou would gloat, taunt, and pester Touya especially hard. Harrying Touya was his favorite pastime.

 _I was lucky this time_ , he thought, reaching the servants' quarters without a sign of his cousin lurking nearby. _Uncle must be very distracted to not wish to waste the time to properly punish me._ It wasn't as if Touya was unthankful to leave his uncle unmarked for once.

Touya opened the thin lid to the hand-me-down chest and scooped up his training clothes. A thought came to him at that moment, as he laid the apprentice-level uniform to the side, and a plan began to flurry in his mind. He considered and finalized possibilities even as he unknotted his obi and started sliding the heavy white kimono off his slim shoulders.

… _It is time I show Uncle undeniable proof of my commitment to the tribe._

-o-

When the sun fell and night reigned, several hours later, Touya was ready.

Touya flitted from roof to roof, his nimble steps treading softly on the virgin snow cover coating the straw and thatch. A pregnant moon hung low that evening and cast a feeble half-light on the dark world below it. The snow reflected in the moonlight, giving Touya indication of where the next rooftop began and such, and anything in the moon's direct light was visible, but most of the town was shadowed and remained as outlines and suggestions of shapes in the Winter boy's sight.

Without a pause, he leapt to the next rooftop. He was alarmed as his foot sunk into the straw, but once the straw held his weight and bounded back, Touya recovered his calm. No measure existed to tabulate how many risks he was taking. The only certainty he knew was that any moment he could make a poor step and fall through a rooftop. Thanks to his uncle's restriction of his meals, however, Touya was lighter than most and that gave him a little insurance in the game of chance he was playing against the roofs.

 _Just a few houses more…_ he reassured himself. _That is where they store their supplies._

All afternoon and through the early evening, Touya had scouted, watched, and planned. Briefly, he had considered killing the other tribe's chief, but that was more likely to enrage the trespassers than force them out. The other tribe did not belong here. They needed to leave. And Touya was going to be the one to make them.

 _No one, not even Uncle, will be able to second-guess my loyalties then. I will have protected the tribe in ways no other has. The tribe's honor will be restored and the tribe will have to_ acknowledge _me and_ accept _me as one among them._

Touya held his gaze on the nearing storehouse. If he destroyed all their supplies, the other tribe would have to leave. They'd have to. Touya's people were leaving soon, so they couldn't steal from them, so that left no other option but moving on.

… _Unless they stayed and starved to death_ , his conscious said. The voice in his head was his uncle's. _Mothers and then their children would go first._

Touya purged the dark thoughts out of his mind. He knew how wrong this was. There wasn't any need for his conscious to remind him of that. Touya hated having to do this, but at least he wasn't needing to kill anyone.

… _Yet,_ his conscious added grimly and, being in his uncle's voice, sounded almost expectantly. Touya really did not need that thought running in his head right now.

Having serious doubts, Touya had to reenlist himself to carrying through his plans. There was no enjoyment abound in what he was about to do—he simply had to do this, not just for his tribe, but for himself.

 _I will be free of my parents' dishonor,_ he told himself.

_I will be free._

-o-

This was exciting.

Jin held back his enthusiasm well, being Jin was Jin and that he never held back anything before. Not to say he was having an easy go of it. It was hard. Having to stay quiet, no letting a single snicker out, gliding as soft as possible and keeping far behind the Winter boy, Jin didn't know if he could carry on with it. It killed him to not fly up, grab the boy, and give him a hearty Spring Tribe welcome.

 _A wee trick be a welcome of sorts too, an' just as good,_ he supposed _. An' more me, anyhoo._

Jin hung back. He watched and waited. He knew when the right time would come—when he would whistle and course the wind to fling a bit of white ash into the Winter boy's face. A harmless prank, it was. Simple too. He just had to make it to that moment.

The moment never came.

Jin hung in midair and observed the boy stop at one of his tribe's storehouses. The Winter boy dug through the white ash and began to rip through the straw. _Just what is he  doin'?_   Jin watched him curiously. _Mighty odd way a' sayin' hello he's got, that I'll say._

Not one to stand still, Jin flew over.

"Long in the hour to be visitin', don't ya think?" he joked as he landed on the rooftop. The Winter boy turned around and seemed shocked to see Jin standing behind him. "Aye, nice ta see ya though." Jin's grin overtook his face, seeing and knowing it was the same boy he met earlier, the boy with the eyes bluer than the sky.

Jin saw the boy take a dark expression and then watched as he threw at him strange crystals that formed without pause from his hand. Jin did not think. He reacted. Jin swayed his arms to one side and tossed up a barrier of wind. The pieces of the odd hard matter Jin had never seen before hit the wind and flew off in different directions, with the pieces glinting brightly in the moonlight.

Jin's instincts did not hold back. He circled his arms back and pushed forward, freeing a powerful gust of wind, and knocked the Winter boy on his arse. Jin's wind slid the boy across the white ash and straw and threw him off the roof.

Jin rushed forward, "Sorry, so sorry! I didn't mean ta! Really, I didn't!" Luckily, the Winter boy had managed to grab and hold on one-handed to the rooftop. Jin dropped to his knees and offered his hand. "…Sorta happened, it did. Reach for me hand if ya can. I won't be lettin' ya fall."

The Winter boy scowled at his hand and smacked it away with his free hand, nearly losing his grip to the roof in the process. "Just _go away_. I do not _need_ help," the boy lied. Everything—from the boy's strained expression to his quivering grasp—said he needed help and soon. "I do not need help from _people like you_."

Jin couldn't have been more bowled over than if he had been tossed by his own wind. He couldn't believe what he was hearing! He could understand knocking his hand away after he had blasted him—in the same situation, Jin probably would have done the same—but that remark…that remark was out of line.

His face flushed, he rose up and stood. He stared sharply down at the Winter boy and drew his mouth into a stubborn line. "Just what has yer bird in a snare? I be sure it smarts yer pride ta get caught, but that's no reason ta be spattin' at me for! …'People like me'," Jin scoffed. "…Just what sort of codswallow be that su'posed ta mean?"

The frigid anger in the boy's eyes and face reminded Jin of how the white ash's cold fire burned the soles of his feet earlier that morning. "I have every right to fight every last one of you thieves!"

Jin wore a hard smile. "If a fight be what yer lookin' for, I'll be obliged ta give ya one. …But what in the wind makes ya accuse me an' my people a' bein' thieves?" He looked away and shook his head a bit in disbelief and then matched eyes with the boy again. "We be a lot of things an' some a' it isn't good, that I'll be the first ta say, but we're never no thieves!"

The Winter boy didn't hesitate to answer. "You invaded our village, forced most of us from our homes, raided our food and supplies…what _word_ would you describe yourself, thief?"

"Aye, aye, hold on a minute…" Jin needed the moment for himself, just to soak in what the boy was saying. His head was aching something fierce. Jin's people were invaders? Jin knew that couldn't be true.

"Yer leader said we could stay 'cause yer be off for the mists soon. The food an' some clothing was your chief's idea. The land be different from what my people know. The wind be so cold…it be against us. We know a land a' plenty, but we find so little food here. We only accepted what your chief assured us ya had plenty of, so we're not thieves."

The Winter boy's grip failed at that instant. Jin scrambled but, true to his word, didn't let the boy fall. With a few deft motions of his hands, Jin scooped the wind around the boy and set him on his feet on the ground below.

But without pause or thanks, the boy continued interrogating Jin, "And having us move into a few houses? There are some houses with four or five families living together. How do you explain that?"

"You're gonna have to talk ta yer chief for that. We were willin' ta live with ya, but he didn't want us ta, " Jin briefly looked up to the night sky as he racked his memory for what the Chief had explained. "…Somethin' ta do with your people leavin' real soon…an' that bein' separate was for the better..."

The Chief, Jin's Chief, had explained that the Winter Tribe didn't want to be a bother for the Spring Tribe as they prepared to leave and they figured it would be easier to slip out unnoticed if they gathered themselves on one side of the village—the Winter Tribe as a whole barely numbered half of the Spring Tribe's count—and also since they required so little room in comparison to the larger Spring Tribe. Jin realized the Winter Tribe's leader's choice for isolation had meant something else entirely…

"Jin! What be ya doin' up there?" a female voice called through the night.

The voice had distracted Jin. When Jin turned back, the Winter boy had gone. Vanished. Jin was disappointed to see him go. The squat woman—Miyo, Jin thought it was Miyo—came out wrapped hastily in layers of kimono. She called to him again. Jin leapt off the rooftop, using the wind to ease his landing.

"Ya been sleep-flyin' again, haven't ya me boy?" Miyo gently chided as she slung a kimono around Jin. "Dangerous thin' ta be doin' even in the best of times. But in this 'ere cold? Ya rushin' headlong for sickness, aren't ya?"

He smiled politely as Miyo continued her mild reprimand and walked with him back to his room several houses down. Of course, he hadn'tbeen sleep-flying, but Jin didn't need to be telling anyone what really happened. After thanking Miyo for her concern and she left, Jin changed into his sleeping robes and slid under a quilt the Winter Tribe's chief had supposedly 'given' the Spring Tribe. Jin did not sleep. He lay thinking.

 _Don't get it one bit… How can ya be hatin' somebody wit'out knowin' them? No fairness 'er rightness about it._ Jin rolled onto his side and slid his arm underneath his pillow. _I dunno… Somethin' in that boy's wind ain't twistin' right. Dunno why, but I know it._

After a while more of thinking, Jin honestly tried to sleep but couldn't. His mind kept flinging the Winter boy's image in his face. He kept seeing him scowl and glare. He kept hearing him slight his people over and over. Jin hadn't done anything, he reminded himself. Whatever slight Jin or his people had done, it was all in the other boy's head. All he wanted to do was be friends.

At some time, during the darkest hours of night, Jin had a new thought, a new resolve.

Jin would change the Winter boy's mind.


	2. Chapter 2

Story Title: A Tale of Snowdrops

Disclaimer: Still don't own YYH or Jin and Touya.

-o-

Day Two: In Which Touya Learns the Meaning and Importance of Living

-o-

The village was changing, Touya noted as he tread into the dense pine forest in the early morning. White sun shone on the hillside through the trees but had not yet reached the open sky. Dawn had been two, maybe three hours ago, but Touya was not drowsy, having been awake and completing chores since before the break of day. It was the way of his tribe—to be constantly laboring for the tribe. There were supplies to collect and tasks to be done, and with all the responsibilities that needed to be completed in so little daylight, the Winter Tribe had no wait for dawn to arrive to get started. Idleness was an offense to the tribe, so here Touya was, outside and in motion.

He tightened his grip on the straps of the elk-hide sack hanging down his back. The ill-fitted bag was made for a much larger, more robust person to carry and the long straps dangled loosely against his back and constantly slipped from his narrow shoulders. Once Touya began collecting the pine boughs, however, the sack would even out and hold a bit better on his shoulders, he hoped.

The young Winter boy continued his unhurried walk through the misty, colorless forest. Touya felt more ill at ease with each step. Not only was the village changing, but the woods, even the air, stirred with a peculiar new life. In all his few years staying in the village, nothing like this had ever happened. The world Touya knew was still, unchanging, frozen. Not like this. Though his snowy surroundings still reflected his familiar world, he felt a pulse in the earth, an undercurrent of energy calling the land and all it contained to grow, to move, to become. The shift intrigued Touya. It also frightened him. Whatever was stirring the land also stirred Touya in ways he hesitated to accept or enjoy because he knew his uncle would not approve.

 _Must be the work of the Spring Tribe_ , he thought distastefully, as he looked to the side and saw yet another melting spot where snow had once been.

Much of the forest was the same—snow blanketed the forest floor and mounded in the evergreens and in the branches of the knobby, bare trees as gray as stone and crunched under his light steps—but there were also changes, like the melting spots, the dripping icicles, and the peculiar _warmth_ in the white sunlight. The last was the most distressing. The sun provided light, not heat. At least it never had before the Spring Tribe came to the village.

Touya reached the sacred pine and set the deep sack on the snowy ground. From the sack, he removed a small hide satchel containing the offering of sacred roots, all prized for their medicinal value and potential lethal toxicity, and a small vial of ice storing the consecrated doe blood.

As he had been taught, Touya approached the old pine with his head bowed and his hands presenting the offering to the tree and kneeled before the hidden hollow at the base of the pine. He scooped out the snow sealing the hollow and poured the blood libation into the dark earth, placed the roots inside, and murmured the proper words his uncle had drilled into him. Once complete, he replaced the snow, carefully patting it down so that his press would not crush the roots and stepped away. Once at a respectful distance, one or two footsteps back, Touya knelt again.

The first rite was to the tree, asking it to withstand death for another year and to continue providing full boughs of new needles for his tribe's sacraments and purification rituals. This second rite was a lengthy prayer to their ancestors to guard the tree and ensure another bountiful yield of needles for the coming year. Touya was never certain as to why his uncle thought the tribe's ancestors would ever grant the prayers of a dishonor to the tribe. By all means, if the ancestors were alive and present to this day, they would shun Touya and sneer at him for defiling their space with his presence like all the other tribe members outside of his blood family did.

Touya muttered the final words of the prayer, sighed softly, and lifted his head. He looked through the branches into the dense concentration of needles and noted the quality, searching for the good (in other words, what his uncle would approve) over the bad. Once finding enough to fill the sack, Touya slipped the sack back onto his shoulders and, with a little pushing leverage from his ice manipulation, leapt onto the lowest branch and bounded from bough to bough collecting the selected needles at an unrushed pace.

His time in the morning in the forest was Touya's happiest part of the day. Being out here was the closest he came to being free. Touya was alone, but not alienated, and there was no one out here to scold him or frown on him or do worse to him. For a bit, however fleeting, he could forget he was a disgrace and simply be at peace.

Finishing with the pine needles, Touya leapt down to the ground carefully so not to disrupt and spill out any and went on with his chores in the forest. He needed to replace the offered medicinal roots next.

Despite all the work, his freedom in the forest was time gratefully appreciated.

-o-

Jin had spent a good portion of the morning and most of breakfast trying to figure out how to best change the Winter boy's mind. But for all his hard endeavor, all Jin had received in return was an aching headache and a cold meal. Jin really wasn't much of a thinker or a planner in the common sense, but he was observant and reacted swiftly to situations that caught his alert eyes. Playing to his strengths, he had decided the best course was to take no course and handle things as they came like he usually did. Things always turned out for the best in the end for him. Born lucky, he supposed.

Which was why Jin was once again following the Winter boy, this time into the forest early in the morning. He had been fortunate as he left his tribe's communal breakfast to catch sight of the boy and immediately tagged along behind him. Jin was careful and glided softly above the ground so not to make a noise and alert the Winter boy that he was there. Luck or otherwise, it worked.

Wherever the Winter boy was going, it was sure a bit of a ways from the village, gratefully Jin had enough forethought to put on thicker clothes this morning or else it would've been too cold for him to follow the Winter boy at all. Jin wondered how long he'd have to trail the Winter boy. It was sure taking a long time. As Jin wondered when he finally would, the boy at last stopped.

Crouching nearby in the tall, white ash-coated hedges, Jin observed with great curiosity through the leaves as the boy knelt down and did odd things in front of the old pine tree Jin used to play on as a little kid before he learned how to fly. It was strange seeing the Winter boy treat the tree with such reverence and holiness while Jin recalled his younger self haphazardly snapping branches and scrapping bark away as he strove to climb to the top.

And then, much to his surprise, the Winter boy rose a tall wedge of that strange crystal-like matter from beneath his feet. He pushed off from the ledge and leapt onto the lowest tree branch. Jin watched as the Winter boy collected pine needles into the sack barely secured to his back. The Winter boy was quick. He leapt and bounded from bough to bough with swiftness and ease as remarkable as Jin's air acrobatics. He seemed to not put any pressure on any branches when he landed or pushed off. The tree's safety was forefront, his task secondary, though he completed his work with precision and remained respectful and protected the tree.

While impressed and delighted by the boy's speed and deft movements, Jin was baffled as to why the boy was gathering pine needles. He didn't think too hard on the matter—after all, he didn't know much about the Winter boy's tribe. For all Jin knew, they could have been important or some form of punishment.

 _Still be kinda barmy ta go 'round collectin' pine needles, if ya ask me, though no one be,_ Jin thought.

The Winter boy touched ground again and did not linger. Jin rose from crouching in the bushes and followed the boy closely as the boy walked away. Judgment said he was too close but Jin didn't mind the risk. He was bored with trailing the Winter boy anyway. Jin much rather be found.

But the Winter boy didn't seem to realize he was there. He seemed too preoccupied with his thoughts or with holding up the constantly slipping sack. It was blatantly clear that the bag wasn't made for someone of his small size. His shoulders weren't broad enough to support the sack, for one thing. Even though he couldn't carry it, the Winter boy seemed greatly concerned with keeping the sack steady. He looked like he needed help and Jin didn't like standing around doing nothing.

"Sure be a lot easier if someone helped ya," Jin said.

Jin had been right. The Winter boy hadn't realized he was there. The startled boy circled around and nearly dropped one strap and spilt pine needles in his surprise. The Winter boy quickly recovered from his shock and sharply narrowed his eyes. He scowled at Jin.

"I'd be obliged ta," he continued. "Be no trouble. Lemme—" Jin reached his arms out and moved toward the boy.

The Winter boy stepped back. "Get away from me!" He swiped at Jin.

Jin merely bent back and missed his strike. "Yea, yea, don't need no help. Heard it all befer an' don't believe a lick." Jin gave the boy a quick critical, sidelong stare. "Ya can barely hold that bag, can ya?"

The Winter boy blinked, slipping his sight briefly away and then back at Jin. A telltale pink flush of embarrassment tinted his pale cheeks. As if to prove him wrong, the boy pulled the sack with a bouncing tug against his back and re-secured his grip. He met Jin's eyes again and raised his head in haughty denial.

"You followed me, didn't you?" the Winter boy said sour.

"No lyin'. I did."

It didn't pass by Jin for one second that the Winter boy had changed the subject. Jin didn't mind. The original topic wasn't that important in the first place. Jin was just happy to be talking to the Winter boy and not fighting. _Goin' bettah than I hoped, it be_ , Jin thought. _Least we're talkin' mug to mug an' not makin' a repeat of last night._

"What do you want from me?"

Jin threw his head back and laughed. "Same thing I told ya yesterday. Want ta meet an' talk…" he paused and broadened his grin. "…Be friends."

"I do not want to be friends. Not with people like you."

Jin shook his head. "Nah true." The Winter boy blinked and stared back perplexed. "Woulda attacked me again if ya didn't a bit."

"That is not— I do not have to fight to dislik—" The Winter boy was flustered and deeply pink with frustration. Unable to give an adequate reply, he turned his back to Jin. "Leave me alone! Why are you here anyway?" The boy peered over his shoulder. "You trying to steal from me, thief?"

Jin overlooked the first stab but now with a second slur on his people, Jin was ready to put an end to that rubbish quick. Jin was angry. He wanted to be angry. After all, nobody talked that way about him or about his people. He scowled and balled his hands into tight fists. The wind picked up at his back, scattering the white ash around him.

The Winter boy circled around and faced Jin. He eyed the wind whirling around Jin cautiously.

_Start somethin' he wants, then let it be so! I won't stand for havin' my people spat on anymore!_

But then he saw the Winter boy's eyes.

They were clear and bright. Shining. Underneath the hard, hateful pretense, the boy's eyes were gentle, uncertain and very confused, but gentle. In the dark of last night, Jin had not and could not see the boy's eyes. He had only heard the dislike in his voice. Now in the bright morning sunlight, he saw his eyes and saw that the Winter boy, for all his tough bluster, wanted to be kind but, for whatever reason, couldn't.

Jin released his fists and his anger. The wind died to a comforting breeze. A broad grin slowly stretched itself across his face. "Don't really believe all that nonsense, don't cha? Speak like it, ya do, but yer eyes give ya. Yer heart's not in it."

"You're wrong, you stupid—" the Winter boy sputtered, his eyes madly darting about, "—loudmouth savage!"

"Stubborn, ain't cha?" Jin walked up and stood a step away in front of the Winter boy and leaned into the boy's bewildered face. He kept his grin and laughed in his throat. His voice was soft. "Still spoutin' malarkey when ol' Jin's got ya pegged. Come on, enough that."

The Winter boy turned his head to the side. "I do not trust you."

"Trust me a little, ya do, 'er we wouldn't be talkin'," Jin, his hands on his hips, straightened back to standing. "Not like I've done anythin' distrustin'."

"You admitted to following me. I say that is shady enough."

Jin shook his head quickly from side to side and waved his hands in front of his chest. "It be not like that at all."

The boy leveled his stare. "Then how is it like? Why do you keep following me?"

"You're the only one that doesn't run," Jin said. "Ev'rybody in your tribe does, even your kids. 'Fraid of me 'er hate me, ya all are, but I only wanna be friends. Honest an' true blue."

The Winter boy's mouth parted open and immediately closed as he stared at Jin in stunned silence. "You are strange," he said once he could speak again.

Jin laughed and scratched the back of his head. "So I been told. Also been a crazy bastard, a cracked nut, an' a wild lil' devil-biter befer too. Been called a whole lotta odd things, that I have."

The Winter boy blinked and struggled not to smile.

"Thing be that I'm not those things. I'm Jin. Always been Jin. Nice ta meet'cha again, by the way."

"You are very odd but you are nice," the Winter boy said, offering the bare shadow of a half-smile.

"I'd say the same fer yourself," Jin said. "…Be nice ta know yer name too, y'know. Gets tirin' thinkin' ya as the Winter boy all the time."

The boy looked down and hesitated to answer as he thought on the matter. Jin could see in his eyes that he quarreled with himself on whether or not to give his name. Jin didn't understand why there was such a fuss. He just wanted to know his name. Nothing dangerous about that.

Eventually, the boy raised up and met his eyes and said, "…Touya."

-o-

Touya could hear his uncle's voice, as his consciousness, scolding him on what a fool he was to give his name to an enemy. Except he did not think the boy from the Spring Tribe was an enemy. He was too cheerful and affable to Touya. He laughed and grinned freely and introduced himself, which Touya believed an enemy would never do.

And the one time he thought Jin was going to attack him after he spouted off more of his uncle's slurs, Jin stopped, because he realized Touya was just repeating his uncle's beliefs. Well, he did not exactly know _whose_ beliefs but he had realized they weren't his own. If he wanted to hurt him, he already would have. But the Spring boy genuinely seemed more interested in talking and being friends, just as he said he was. Jin was honest.

So Touya gave his name.

And once he did, Jin made up for lost use by saying his name as many times as he could in his flurry of questions.

"Jin, I am sorry to say that did not even hear all of what you asked. No, do not repeat yourself, please," Touya said as he secured his grip on the slipped sack again and started walking down a deer trail. "I am supposed to be working."

"What are ya doin', Touya?" Jin asked as he followed behind him. "Can I help, Touya?"

"Chores," Touya answered. "And I do not think you can help. It is probably not wise to be following me."

"Why?" Jin blinked.

"You said it yourself," Touya said, pausing to adjust his hold on the loose sack, "My tribe fears you. They would not like seeing me near you."

"Why aren't yer people more like you then? Why do they run from me?"

"Preservation drives us," he explained as he scanned along the forest floor for medicinal plants. "Your people are outsiders, therefore pose a threat. Our chief relies heavily on the wisdom and judgment of the ice master and the ice master advocates fear. That is why everyone runs and fears you, Jin. You are a stranger to us."

"Why are you diff'rent then?"

Jin's question stopped Touya where he stood.

"I do not know," he said, quietly, and slowly restarted his search.

Touya had thought Jin would heed the not-so-subtle hint about his tribe not wanting him to be seen with him and leave, but no. The odd Spring boy continued smiling and padded right alongside him through the snow and trees. Jin might have been unafraid (and quite possibly had nothing to be afraid of) but his presence with him did concern Touya. After all, he knew what he was doing could be misconstrued as and he knew the consequences he would face if he was caught near Jin. He took comfort in the fact he was always left alone to his morning chores in the forest before and there was no reason anyone would be watching him now. And besides…

It was kind of nice having someone to talk to.

"Okay, no fightin'," Jin said, as he struggled to free, and Touya protested over him taking, the once-again slipped sack. "Seen it fall too many times, I have. Gonna hafta let me carry it." Jin's playful laughter hushed all of Touya's objections.

And Touya lost. Jin had been too quick, too persistent, and it all became too apparent to him that he would have to let Jin carry the sack of pine needles. He had to admit, though he did not wish to, that the sack held on Jin better than it ever would on him.

And no one had ever helped him before. It was a strange but good feeling, like a snowflake-sized ball of the _warm_ sunlight glowed inside his chest, but Touya could not allow himself to enjoy it—his uncle would not have approved—and crushed the goodness with ice.

He had much more to be concerned about now that Jin was tagging along and holding onto the sack of pine needles for the tribe's sacraments. His uncle's voice chastised him on how he had _'defiled'_   the pine needles by allowing _'t_ _hat savage'_   to carry them. Touya disagreed. If it were possible for the needles to lose their potency, they would have been useless the instant Touya picked them. There couldn't be much difference between himself and Jin in respects to their contact defiling the sacred pine, Touya believed.

Still it would not be good for him if anyone of his tribe saw Jin carrying the pine needles but since Jin refused to stop helping, all Touya could do was pray that no one saw them while he finished gathering. He did not have confidence in his luck. Touya was never born lucky. He was lucky to have been born.

It was fortunate for him that with a few more roots, he would be done. Already he had spent too much time searching. Touya still had many other chores to complete. He did not want to seem idle or worse—have to explain his delay to his uncle. He would not be able to lie to him.

Jin was part of the reason he was taking so long. His presence distracted him. Touya found his eyes slid more often over to and stayed on the smiling boy beside him than on the forest floor where they were supposed to be. Touya wasn't used to anyone accompanying him in the forest or anywhere. And the Spring boy was just so odd to Touya, he couldn't help but sneak glances at him in curiosity.

And, secretly, he enjoyed Jin's company. He wasn't supposed to be but he was. It was difficult to not. He had never met someone so genuinely happy and whose cheer could wash over and fill other people. Touya had never felt such a strong urge to feel happy before now. With much restraint and ice over his emotions, Touya maintained his blank expression and suppressed the smile wanting to spread across his face. He ordered himself to focus on his chore and to ignore the boy beside him.

And then Jin decided to speak.

"There still be somethin' I don't get," he said, his face scrunched up in an expression of confused but deep thought. "Why yer people hafta be afraid of us? We won't hurt ya. Don't want ta. I think yer people are all bein' silly, I do."

Touya told himself to work. He told himself to not respond. He told himself he had work to do and much more work yet to be done and that he was late. He told himself he didn't have time to chat.

Touya found himself answering Jin.

"It is different for us. We fear what we do not understand because it might harm us and anything that might harm us might kill us. Above all else, we fear death."

"Why?"

"It is what we see, what we know," he said, as he kneeled down and manipulated ice into a spade to dig for the root. "Blizzards bring death. Lack of fire brings death. Starvation brings death. Our ways are built on our fear of death. We must always conserve our supplies and ourselves. We must always be precise. We must not hinder our tribe. We must all be for the tribe."

"I may've not understood 'bout blizzards an' such," Jin said, "But that be no way ta live."

As he brushed off the dirt from the cut root, Touya peered up and said in an even voice, "As long as our tribe survives, nothing else matters."

"Say it again then, I will," Jin shook his head from side to side. "That's no way ta live. Ya can't be 'fraid all the time. How do ya have any fun thinkin' 'bout dyin' all the time?"

Touya looked back at Jin and blinked. "We do not. Frivolity is a waste of time and energy and would hinder the tribe. We cannot be focused and precise acting like fools."

" _Havin' fun?_ " Jin stared wide-eyed. His jaw hung open. "Yer tellin' me ya don't run 'round 'er play 'er dance 'er laugh 'er _anythin'_?"

Touya shook his head no.

"Then what's the point?"

As he rose from kneeling, Touya raised a confused eyebrow. "Sorry but I do not understand what you mean."

"What be the point of fightin' death if yer not gonna enjoy the life yer protectin'?

At first, Touya had no answer. He stood in stunned silence and thought and thought over Jin's question. His consciousness in his uncle's voice spouted hate for Jin and his _'lies'_ , but had no concrete counter. Touya was left to come up with his own response. He did not think he could in confidence. He offered the best reply he could muster.

"So we continue to exist—"

"But ya don't live."

"I suppose…" Touya said softly, looking down at the snow at his covered feet, as Jin's words and the immediate realization that accompanied them hit him like an ice dagger between his ribs. "…we do not."

 _I do not know what he means by 'living' but I trust in what I feel that my tribe does not,_ Touya thought. _Jin seems to put much importance on living. I do not see why, but I have never 'lived' so I would not. I imagine it is like never knowing the night wind's chill and trying to envision what it would feel like blowing on one's bare skin._

… _But if one has never known such a feeling, how can anyone ever imagine how it feels?_

"Can't be good. Fightin' death already dead 'er least halfway dead," he heard Jin say.

Something in Jin's words stabbed him again, this time the hit felt like it was in his gut. His hands on and guarding his stomach, Touya turned away. He stared at the ground. Behind him, Jin animatedly apologized, that whatever he said bad he hadn't meant in a mean way and on and on and on. Touya wasn't hurt, at least by anything that would warrant an apology from Jin. It was the truth that hurt him. It was not easy facing the realization that he, along with the rest of his tribe, was dead in every way but actuality.

Touya thought and breathed and considered and breathed a little more. He wanted to reflect on Jin's words for a while longer, but that would have to wait until later. He could not take the time now for fear of Jin passing out from lack of inhaling as he flailed about and continued on and on with his apology.

"—Didn't mean ta hurt yer feelin's, I didn't. I swear—"

Touya turned around, "I know, Jin. It was not you. It was something else. Do not worry."

Jin eventually calmed down and seemed to be reassured, though Touya still felt Jin watching him as he began hunting for his last medicinal root. Searching along the ground around trees, Touya did find something very quickly, though it was not the root he wanted. In all honesty, he had no idea what it was, except that it was a plant. One he had never seen or anything like it before.

"Jin, what is this?" he asked.

Jin walked over and crouched down beside him, "Looks like a flower ta me."

"A flower?" Touya looked bewildered.

"A pretty plant," Jin said.

Touya nodded, though he only sort of understood. He knew what plants were, obviously, but he had never heard of plants existing only to be pretty. Plants had functions, had uses. They were not supposed to be pretty.

"What I know, in the village," Jin explained, "there're flowers ev'rywhere. All kinds an' colors. A-right sight, it be. Seen them all, I have, but only really know the names of ones good for eatin'." Jin reached forward and brushed the snow from the top of the white flower. "I know I said I seen them all but I never seen this one."

Even with the weight of the snow swept off its top, the three white parts of the flower still drooped over its grayish-green stem. Touya thought the way it hung made it look sad. Its thin, slender body reminded Touya of a woman bent over crying, the white flower like her hair draped over her grieving face. Touya thought of his mother…

Touya had no personal memories of his mother, or his father for that matter. Both had died when he was a few weeks old. But he had once saw a portrait of her—burning in his uncle's fire pit. His uncle had made him watch. Touya had wanted to save it. He had sat shaking in desperation, wanting wholly to snatch his mother's portrait out of the flames. But his uncle had stood beside him, eyeing his every twitch and tremble.

It had been so many years ago since he had seen his mother's portrait. He could now hardly recall what she had looked like. And just as he believed he had a grasp of her appearance, Jin shook his shoulder and drew him out of his thoughts and away from his hazy, half-formed memory.

"Look it! Lots more over there an' there, " Jin stretched his arm out and pointed, "Look at 'em, pokin' through the white ash."

Touya blinked at the large spread of small, crying white-haired ladies clustered across the woods. _They cover the forest floor like snow…_

"Tough little things, they hafta be. Been lookin' 'round an' I ain't seen a flower yet but these. Small but a kinda nice su'prise. Didn't think anythin' could grow in this cold."

"Nothing does," Touya said. "At least, nothing had before. Little survives the cold."

 _But somehow, these have,_ Touya thought, gazing in wonder of the many white flowers. _They have the strength to survive their harsh conditions._

"Seems like they're doin' all right."

Touya nodded.

Jin turned to Touya, "So if I an' you dunno what they are, what are they? What'll we call them?"

"…Snowdrops," Touya said.

Jin smiled and crossed his arms casually behind his head, "That they'll be."

Touya turned to Jin and raised his head to meet his eyes. "Jin, I am sorry."

Jin's face scrunched up in confusion, "'Bout what?"

"For all the hurtful things I said. You were right. I do not believe anything I said about you or your tribe. But that does not make what I said excusable. Even if I did not believe my words, I should not have said what I did." He bowed deeply from the waist. "I am very sorry."

Touya rose to meet Jin's broad grin and bright eyes.

"Does this mean we can be friends now?" he asked, eager for a reply.

"I don't—well…" Touya lowered his head and considered. "…I suppose."

"Finally!" Jin shouted and in a flurry of motion quickly slid off the sack of pine needles and rested it against a tree. "Been wantin' ta show ya this, I have!"

"Jin?" He watched his frantic actions with a wary eye. "What do you—"

Touya had no time to finish his question and did not really need to after getting his answer a second later. Jin scooped him up into his arms and flew off into the air in a grand burst of wind. Touya screamed, a high, fearful sound, and wrapped his arms tightly around Jin and his hands clawed and gripped the back of Jin's green robes for security.

 _I do not want to fly. Not anymore. Not ever,_ Touya thought, cringing against Jin. _It was foolish idea. I will never think it again. Please, just let me back down._

Touya buried his shut eyes against Jin's chest. The wind's speed was too great in any case to allow Touya to keep his eyes open. Not that he would want to see his surroundings, like the ever-growing distance between himself and the forest ground below.

The wind lessened and Jin halted suddenly. A mild breeze fluttered their robes and brushed a few stray strands of Jin's wild red hair against Touya's forehead. Touya's legs dangled and kicked and struggled to desperately find solid footing. He would not, of course, being hundreds of feet up in the air.

"Look. Look it, Touya," Jin said gently.

_I do not want to._

"Don't be afraid. I got ya. Won't let ya fall, I won't." To emphasize his promise, Jin adjusted and tightened his hold around Touya and drew him closer. "Look it."

Touya trembled. There were several comparable things he would rather do instead of looking and they all seemed like better ideas. Mostly because they were all things he could do on the ground.

Though the height frightened him, he had to admit to some curiosity. He felt Jin smiling and there was so much eagerness in his voice. Whatever was there, Jin obviously wanted him to see. He was excited for Touya to see. And well…the more he reconsidered, the more he realized he did want to look.

He slowly peered over his shoulder and peeked an eye open. The first sight he saw was a bright glimmer. Light. Slowly opening his eyes wider, he saw blue sky and rolling white clouds and misty vapor. The clouds moved like a blustery snowstorm whirling and spilling over, under, and out of itself in an endless, continual flow. White-gold sunlight sparkled and danced through the clouds and glittered with many colors in the vapor.

Anywhere he laid his eyes Touya found something lovely. He was surrounded in beauty and magnificence. His previous fear was gone, swept away in the wind bearing his and Jin's forms aloft. Never had he seen anything so captivating, so calming. Touya was at peace.

"It's beautiful…" he said in awe. "You see this all the time?"

"Aye," Jin said. "But this be just the plain ol' day sky. Sunset's _really_ pretty. Dawn be too. Lots a purples an' oranges an' some pinks and golds. Bunch a' colors. Hafta show ya, I will."

"I think I would like to see that," Touya said and smiled.

For the longest time, the sight of the open sky mesmerized Touya and he gazed at nothing else. A pressing feeling eventually drew his attention away and made him glance up. The feeling, as it turned out, was Jin smiling and looking at him. Or just into his eyes. Touya tilted his head down and canted his eyes. Pink tinted his cheeks.

 _I have a friend_ , he thought, growing warm in the sunlight and in Jin's arms. _It is…nice._

Touya tightened his grip and held on with one hand to the back of Jin's robes. He turned and raised his freed arm into the sky. Since Jin showed him the sky, Touya thought it best if he returned the favor. The air was thick with moisture. Touya summoned and focused his energy into his hand. Jin said nothing, adjusted his hold on Touya where needed, and simply watched in curious interest. Briefly, his hand flashed pale green with his energy.

And then the snowflakes fell.

They were small and fluffy but perfect and they were _pure_. How ever the sunlight hit them, the snowflakes sparkled or shimmered in a blinding white light. Caught in Jin's breeze, the shining snowflakes spun and twirled about them. They gamboled wildly in flighty, erratic patterns.

Touya heard his uncle's voice grumbling on the uselessness and frivolousness of creating snowflakes for such a matter. Snowflakes in general were too soft and delicate—these snowflakes even more so. In the art of ice manipulation, snowflakes were best used as a blinder or in combinations. Snowflakes could be hardened slightly and could cut bare skin but the wounds they inflicted were hardly lethal. Hailstones were more effective.

He heard the grumbling but Touya did not care. Maybe it was silly and maybe it was a waste of energy to make something pretty, but what harm had making snowflakes done? None to Touya or anyone.

 _No matter if it was a waste of energy,_ he thought as he snuck a glance up at Jin and saw his beaming smile and his bright eyes fixed on the spiraling snowflakes in wondrous delight. _I believe, for this, it was a worthy sacrifice._

As the last of the snowflakes fluttered down and the sunlight broke apart the clouds, Jin brought Touya back down. Unlike their sudden ascent, their descent was slow and gradual.

"Thank you, Jin," he said as soon as they reached the forest floor again.

"Thought ya'd like it," Jin said and winked. "Fly ya all 'round the village if ya want. Know a coupla' tricks we could pull. All in good fun, 'course." He laughed through a large mischievous grin.

Touya quickly had the sack of pine needles in hand and was slipping on the second strap. "I…must be going. I have delayed the rest of my chores for too long. If I stay any longer, there will be questions."

He began to turn but paused and faced Jin again. "Thank you. For everything. Goodbye."

"But we'll see each other later, we will?" Jin said hurried.

Touya stopped mid-step and circled back around again. He stood still, drawing in and biting his lower lip, and considered as Jin waited anxiously for his reply. He was lost in his deliberation for a long time before finally nodding yes and Jin grinned. Touya left quickly after. Had to, though he would have liked to have stayed longer, he soon realized.

-o-

It crossed Jin's mind once that maybe this wasn't a good idea, that maybe he shouldn't be sneaking around the Winter Tribe's side of the village and that maybe Touya wouldn't be so keen on following with his plan. Jin had decided that, after all, it wasn't good idea.

Jin had decided it was a _great_ idea.

He glided and slipped down back alleys and between houses trying recall which house had been Touya's but all the houses looked the same—cold, coated in white ash, and wrapped in dead brown vines. It didn't help Jin's memory that it was night with no moon to aid his sight.

It was a shame he just couldn't knock on a shoji door and simply ask someone where Touya lived. He had considered, more than once, doing just that but knew no one would come for their silly fear of him. That and Touya had been pretty clear about his tribe not liking him to be seen with him. Didn't understand why, of course, but from how Touya's eyes—those eyes bluer than the sky—kept darting around warily and how the boy never relaxed (except when they were up in the sky), Jin got the hint it would be a bad thing for his new little friend if he was ever caught around him.

Which was why he was trying to be secretive. And for Jin being Jin, he was doing a pretty good job of being stealthy. Much as he preferred being boisterous and brashly barging in headfirst, there was a kind of palpable excitement that bolted through his every nerve and muscle in being quiet and cautiously sneaking around. Still Jin was a flood of energy and struggled with his persuasive impulse to fly open every shoji door with single strong gust.

 _Sure be a lot easier ta find Touya that way. Anythin's bettah than—_ WHOA! Jin stopped in the middle of the dark street and circled around. _That be some serious energy somebody's pourin' out! An' just a splash in the river, it feels._ Jin's ears perked and the wind stirred with his anticipation. _Dunno if I could win, but I'd sure like ta try. Somebody like that a man's just gotta test himself against!_

Much as Jin liked to fly off, meet the source of this storm of energy, which felt similar to Touya's, though was far more harsher, jagged, and bitter than his, and challenge whomever in a good one to one, Jin already had other plans settled. He didn't want to turn down a possible fight—it was a surprise for himself that he was—but his plans for Touya were really more important, Jin decided.

Besides, it was not as if Touya couldn't introduce him later. Someone as powerful as that couldn't be afraid of him and probably wouldn't mind giving him a spar. He really wasn't turning down a challenge, just postponing it for a better time.

Jin really couldn't remember which house was the one he first met Touya in. The search was taking longer than he expected. Not like it hampered his plans or anything. Jin just wanted to find Touya quickly already so they could get to the fun.

There were a few ways he could go about finding Touya. Most were too brazen, like blowing open all the shoji doors, and would alert the whole village to his search. Others were more surreptitious but could still get Touya in trouble if Jin tried for too long. Too bad Touya wasn't doing any ice tricks so Jin could pick up his energy.

Ultimately, Jin did what was best for his friend and hoped he didn't draw attention from the rest of his tribe.

"Touya! Hey, Touya!" He loudly whispered toward the houses as he walked slowly down the white-ash coated street. "Where are ya, Touya? Hey—"

A shoji door slid open. His fleeting, initial concern that maybe someone else was there flew away and a grin spread across his face once he saw Touya, sitting kneeled before him in a long, thick white kimono. Jin had to admit to some confusion as to why his new friend was staring at him, his eyes narrowed sharply. Like he was mad at him again.

"Jin, are you crazy?" Touya said, his voice at a low murmur. "This is too dangerous. You should not be here. You cannot be seen. I cannot be seen with you. Go. Quickly. Before someone finds you."

"All-righty but come with me," Jin said. "I want ta show ya somethin'."

Touya's eyes widened. "I cannot—I could not—"

Jin grabbed and tugged on Touya's arm, "Ah, none a' that. Come with me. Hurry now. Don't wanna be seen, don't cha?" He grinned.

"Jin, _please,_ " Touya begged and gripped the shoji doorframe tightly, fighting Jin's strong pull and barely keeping himself inside. "I would not be permitted—"

"Don't give a damn 'bout that," Jin said softly, smirking as he held onto Touya's arm, leaned in close to his pale, uncertain face, and stared into his eyes. "I want ya ta come with me. Ya told me 'bout yer tribe, now I want ta show ya mine. Fair's fair."

Touya peered about reluctantly, staring fearfully the longest in the direction of the receding storm of energy. He hesitated to answer at first and watched as Jin waited, grinning. When he was finally convinced that Jin was not leaving without him, Touya softly sighed and gave in.

"Wait a moment first," he whispered. "Out of sight. Okay?"

Jin nodded and quickly took cover in the gap between the two houses across from Touya's. Touya closed the shoji. Jin waited and wondered what he was doing. He wasn't telling anyone where he was going, Jin knew it definitely wasn't that. A few minutes later, Touya came out quietly in a dark blue kimono more appropriate for being outside in, made a quick check for anyone in or watching the street, and crept across.

Jin grinned and was ready to greet Touya when the Winter boy abruptly covered his hand over his mouth before he could speak. Jin blinked but watched closely as Touya put a finger to his lips and shook his head no. Jin nodded and kept silent.

 _For some reason, he's big on his people not findin' him,_ Jin thought as he and Touya quietly made their way away from the Winter Tribe's side of the village. _Am I really that big bad a monster ta them?_

Jin wondered and thought and didn't understand things all the way back to his tribe's side of the village. Beside him, Touya did not say anything either. He was more occupied with keeping constant watch around them. Jin guided Touya with light touches to his back over to a large meetinghouse. Soft orange light flicked dimly against the yellowed shoji paper doors but stood out vividly in the black night. Jin and Touya stepped onto the surrounding veranda. They could hear laughter and chatter muffled through the closed door.

Jin's fingers twitched in eagerness as he reached for and slid the door open. The air swelled and flooded with raucous, thunderous noise, rowdy enough to roar angrily but really consisted solely of good cheer and overenthusiasm. Touya, his eyes widened, stepped back in alarm. Jin placed a hand on Touya's back, partially to reassure him and partially to be ready to give him a friendly push into the room if need be.

"Nothin' ta worry 'bout. Lotta whoopin' and hollerin' goin' on, that be all," Jin gave Touya's back a strong, encouraging pat. "Come on! Let's have some fun!"

Jin draped his arm around Touya's shoulders and led him inside, shutting the door behind them with a quick, light burst of wind. Touya tensed as they approached the rest of Jin's tribe and canted his eyes to the floor. One by one, silence swiped across the busy room and faded out each person's voice. Each followed the one before them and looked at Touya and Jin. Mostly Touya. Jin met his tribe's curious stares and smiled. Touya didn't look up at all.

He searched and searched across the long, deep room among the many wildly windswept red puffballs packing the place and finally found the Chief of the Spring Tribe. He eyed Jin considerably as Jin stepped up and offered a rapid, polite bow. The Chief quirked a bushy fox-colored brow at seeing Touya.

"Sir, I'd like ya an' ev'rybody else ta meet me friend, Touya," Jin said. "He's from the Winter Tribe."

Murmurs and glances raced through his tribe. He took fast note of their expressions. Most were shocked, some were happy and thrilled by the news, and very few were concerned. Jin grinned. There was excitement and energy swelling in the room.

"This be…unexpected," the Spring Chief whispered in astonishment. "Are ya really?"

Touya kept his head down and his eyes on the wooden floor. "Yes sir, I am," he said softly and bowed. "It is nice to meet you."

"Look at me, boy," the Chief said. A nervous Touya obeyed, raising his head quickly and meeting the Chief's sight.

After gazing for as long as a deep breath, the Chief smirked, the wildness in his larkspur eyes clear. "Good eyes, ya got. Not very lucky, I don't suppose, but good an' honest, they are."

Touya released his apparently held breath. Jin pressed Touya's shoulder and gave him a light shake. He was trying to get Touya to lighten up and smile, but the best Jin got was the halfhearted shadow of something mistakable for a smile or a pain spasm. In front of the Chief and all these other strangers, Touya was rigid.

 _Told 'em befer he don't need ta be 'fraid a' us,_ Jin shrugged his shoulders. _Ah, well, he'll loosen up soon enough. Even if I hafta make 'em, heheh._

The Chief threw back his head and laughed. "No su'prise that Jin'd be the one ta befriend one a' ya," he smiled. "Lock the boy up in a room all by himself an' he'd make friends wit the people in his head."

"There's no people in me head!" Jin protested.

The Chief shook his head and waved a hand in manner that said that wasn't the point before he fixed his wild eyes on Touya again. "Told we'd nevah see hide nor hair a' ya, we were, but I'm glad one a' ya be brave enough ta say hello. Touya, right? Well, there be a party supposed ta be goin' on an' we'd like it if ya stayed awhile. Welcome, ya are. Keep Jin outta trouble for us, will ya?"

At the Chief's last sentence, Touya blinked,"…Yes, sir."

Surveying the tribe's watching eyes, the Chief turned his gaze onto his people and shouted, "What this be, a celebration 'er a wake? Man shouldn't be able ta hear himself think in here. Get at it!"

The Chief of the Spring Tribe flashed Touya a final smile and nodded to Jin before he merged into the crowd. Gradually, a chattering hum filled the room. A few conversations steered toward Touya but most fell right back where Touya's entrance had cut them off. Jin heard the Chief's deep laugh bounce across the room. It was impossible to tell from exactly where.

Jin murmured in Touya's ear, "Sure there be plenty here that'd like ta meet'cha. Come now. Let's say hi."

Touya swallowed dryly. "…Whatever you say."

They didn't even get a step in before Shii, Wara, and Magi ran out of the crowd. Amazed at the sight of a real person from the Winter Tribe, the boys grinned and stared up bug-eyed at Touya. Jin knew they'd get a kick out of meeting Touya. Magi was also looking up at Touya, but Jin thought she was acting a little weird. He could've swore the little flash fire-tempered girl was acting shy, of all things, in front of Touya.

 _Heh, world's gone topsy-turvy, it has_ , Jin thought. _Not that's entirely a bad thin'. Wouldn't have met Touya if it hadn't._

"Are ya a boy 'er a girl?" Shii asked, parting his fringe away from his eyes.

"…I am a boy," Touya said, looking rather stunned to being asked.

"Really?" Wara said, surprised. "'Cause yer face's girly."

Magi knocked both boys on the head, "Idiots! Not one 'a ya learnt any manners!" Peering back up at Touya, she suddenly turned sweet. "Don't mind them. They don't know any bettah. Ah 'course, yer a boy, it's so obvious. 'Course, _they_ can't tell."

"Come on, Sis!" Shii said, his pudgy hands covering his sore head, "Ya hafta admit—"

" _Shut up!_ " Magi whispered harshly underneath her breath to her brother and instantly returned to smiling at Touya.

Jin laughed as he crouched down and gave Shii's hair a good tousle. "What we've got here are a couple of milk-suckers. These three aren't even all 'em. Got a lot of 'em runnin' 'round an' I'm kinda all their big brother. You'll see soon enough, I think," Jin said. "Out a' all though, here the biggest troublemakers—"

"Only 'cause we're doin' what ya told us ta," Shii and Wara said, grinning back at Jin.

"Never told ya ta get caught, have I?" Jin smirked back. The boys stuck their tongues out. "Up awfully late, ya are," Jin said, giving the kids a sidelong stare. "Do yer parents know yer up an' wanderin' 'round?"

"'Course not," Wara answered. "They'd make us go ta bed with the babies an' miss the party."

"An' we're not babies," Magi said.

"Yea, we're not babies," Shii echoed.

"Yer gonna wish ya were babies!" a woman shouted. The boys turned around.

"Ah! Me Mam's found us!" Wara said. "We gotta go, Jin. Bye!"

"Bye, Jin," Shii said as he tugged on Magi's arm. She wasn't budging and seemed too occupied with grinning at Touya. "… _Come on_ , Magi!"

Magi huffed and pouted but saw Wara's mother coming and knew she had to leave. "Bye, Touya!" she said and waved in a hurry before disappearing with the boys.

Jin laughed. "Atta boy, Touya," he said, smacking him on the back and nearly pitching him to the floor. "Already got girls fallin' for ya."

Touya stared at Jin, "What?"

Jin put his arm around Touya's shoulders and led him through the crowd. "Magi's got a crush on ya."

"Um…sorry?"

"Ah, nothin' wrong. Between ya an' I, we can let her down. Probably should do it soon though. She might attack ya." Jin leaned in, shielded his hand over his mouth, and murmured, "Dunno 'bout yer girls, but ours be odd wild beasts."

"Wild beasts, ya say," an overhearing Spring Tribe girl said, pinching Jin's cheek and stretching it out as far as it would go. "Like ya boys be poor, innocent souls haplessly picked off one by one by us lusty lasses. Oh woe it be for ya helpless boys." She smirked. Jin grinned back sheepishly.

A second and a third Spring Tribe girl, friends of the first, each stood on either side of Touya, wrapped their arms around him in a loose hug, and grinned impishly. "I dunno. Jin might be right. We might have ta take this one." The girls giggled chirpily and, between them, Touya hid down into his kimono, pink on his cheeks.

"Now, girls, we can't let Jin be right," the first girl said, flashing a tiny fanged grin. "Leave'em alone an' let's get back." Her friends pouted and whined.

The first girl stepped closer to Jin. "One a' these days," she said softly, "yer gonna learn how ta do somethin' wit yer mouth other than flap yer gums, Jin. Might just keep ya outta trouble for once."

She gave Jin a quick peck on the cheek and smirked at Jin's bewildered expression. Her friends leaned down and kissed Touya's cheeks. His face turned a deep rose. The two girls giggled again and the first girl winked over her shoulder at Jin as they rejoined their trio and slipped back into the party.

"Wild beasts," Jin said, "just like I told ya."

Touya simply nodded.

Curious stares still greeted Jin and Touya as Jin went on with introducing Touya to friends and anyone who decided to come up and say hello. Touya looked about confused and uncertain through all the handshakes, pats on the back, and random hugs he received. He was opening up, slowly. Touya raised his head up and met people's eyes when anyone spoke to him, though he still stood stiff and a little scared. He stood close to Jin and edged toward him more so whenever a group crowded around him.

Not one soul said a thing mean to Touya, though a few made light joking comments on how small and short he was and Miyo clasped his jaw, looked at one side of his face and then the other, said he was too peaky, and invited him to breakfast. All in all, things were going about as Jin thought it would. His tribe welcomed and took to Touya like birds to air. Touya was having fun, much as his timidity tried to hide his small smile. And Jin…

Jin was having a blast.

At some point, a table was brought in (or was already there, circumstances didn't matter) and a handful of guys and a lass or three started an arm wrestling tournament of sorts. The rules were rather loose—king of the mountain-style with the winner taking on all newcomers until replaced by a new winner and so on and so on.

Still talking and greeting Touya around the party, Jin didn't know somebody had started up some arm wrestling (though it wasn't surprising) until the roars of cheering started and Touya looked startled in the direction of the shouts. Jin laid a hand on Touya's shoulder and walked with him over to the large gathered circle. Jin grinned eagerly.

Though Jin was still seen as a child in the tribe and technically wasn't allowed to wrestle with the adults, everybody conveniently forgot about his child status when there was a contest going on. After all, Jin was one of the best.

To his tribe's already fervent cheers that Jin take the next match, Jin and Touya made their way through to the front of the crowd. Jin didn't lose his eager grin but a trace hardness lined itself in his grin once he saw the current champion.

Jin knew the guy. Didn't like him. Not one bit. And he didn't like Jin. Probably because of all the broken bones, bruises, and bleeding he wound up receiving picking fights with Jin. It might have been that. Or something else. One thing Jin knew for sure was that this guy deserved all the beatings he got and more.

The guy didn't like facing Jin either. Mostly because he had never won against Jin. In fighting or arm wrestling, despite being twice as big as Jin and stacked with muscles with the strength to boot. The big brute wore a hard, bitter smile and glared at Jin as Jin took his place across the table and readied his arm in position. Smirking conceitedly, the guy took his hand and the match began.

With the barest struggle, Jin pulled down the brute's arm and won. The crowd celebrated. Through grins and a little pandering to his tribe, Jin caught a moment and looked over at Touya.

Touya was impressed and his eyes shone bright with awe—those eyes bluer than the sky…

And then the surly brute banged his fist on the table, effectively silencing the happy roar, and drawing Jin's attention away from Touya.

"Hey, how 'bout 'im?" the guy said, pointing at Touya. "All us a' havin' fun but this kid's just starin', not doin' nothin'. Winter kid, ya wanna wrestle? Real easy ta learn. I'll teach ya, heheh." The brute smirked wickedly, his long fangs glimmering yellow.

Touya waved his hands in front of his chest, "No thank you. I do not want to. I think I would rather watch."

The brute straightened up tall and stamped over, his footsteps thundering against the floor. "What be ya? A chicken-shit coward? Come on! Be a man, lil' boy!" he swiped the air, his large hand almost knocking into Touya.

Touya did not move toward him.

"Get over here!" the guy boomed and snatched at Touya.

Jin grabbed the brute's wrist.

Glowering, Jin gritted his teeth and tightened his grip, bones crunching and grinding against another. "Yer mam ever teach ya the meanin' a' the word no? Says he doesn't want ta, he does, so _leave em alone_ ," Jin ordered, his voice low and dark, and twisted the guy's wrist and pushed it back against the guy's chest.

The brute tried staring down Jin but Jin was hardly about to back down. With no support in the room to back him if he fought Jin, the guy simply lowered his head and left the party in a sour haste. _Good riddance! Guy like him, bein' mean just for bein' mean, nobody wants ta party 'round,_ Jin thought as he put his arm around Touya's shoulders and started moving away from the wrestling table.

"But Jin, ya won," one of the guys in the crowd said. "Ya gotta go on."

"Nah. Suddenly's not no fun," Jin said. "Let somebody else take me place."

The crowd protested but Jin ignored them and kept walking. Jin led Touya through the onlookers and through the rest of the chattering partygoers over to a quiet spot out of the way. Touya stood near as Jin crossed his arms behind his head and leaned against the wall.

"Jin, I am sorry if that guy—"

"Ah, pay no mind. He's just a big jerk. Wrestles the lil' kids an' leaves them all bruised an' cryin'. Mostly gets away wit it too 'til the kids tell me." Briefly, a burn of old anger flashed on his face as he recalled some of the littlest ones hurt and sobbing. "Dunno how strong ya are, but he'd snap yer arm for the fun. Okay if ya wanna arm wrestle, but I don't want ya goin' up against him first."

"I do not think I want to arm wrestle," Touya said.

Jin closed his eyes, tipped his head down, and smiled, "That be fine too."

_Coulda' taken that guy, ya could, I know ya could. Felt your power before so I know you're strong. But fightin' be not the first thin' ya go ta. Not like it be with us. Not sayin' either one be good 'er bad, just that they're diff'rent. Probably only would fight back if someone tried ta hurt ya._

… _And if anyone with sticks for brains did that, they'd have us both ta toss about wit._

"'So…" Jin said, after a short period of silence. "…Wonderin' how things goin' so far? Didn't go so perfect, true, but like ta know what ya think, I do. 'Least I'd like ta hear if you're havin' fun."

"Jin, I—" Touya started to say before the sound of music drowned his words out.

Jin's ears perked and twitched. "Finally! Been waitin' for them ta get started!"

Touya blinked in confusion, "Waiting for what?"

"Ta dance, a' course," Jin said, pulling Touya back out into the party by the wrists.

" _Dance_?" Touya's eyes widen as he dug his heels into the floor and tried stopping Jin. "I can't!"

"Can't 'er won't," Jin said through a partial laugh. "Either way you're gonna."

Touya continued to protest and struggle against his pull. As stubborn as the Winter boy was toward not dancing, Jin was doubly more adamant that Touya joined him and he was more used to getting his way, certainly more than Touya was, Jin felt.

"Not gonna hurt ya, not gonna be bad. Don't hafta be any good neither," Jin reassured. "Just have fun."

"Jin, I…" Touya, looking flustered and with his eyes to the floor, tried to object.

Jin wasn't listening. He drew him in close, succinctly hushing any silly little excuse Touya was giving him. "Trust me," he said softly. "Like when we were up in the big blue."

Touya gazed back at him. There was fear and reluctance in his eyes but also deliberation. He angled his stare down as he thought, and when he was done, Touya closed his eyes.

"Okay…" he said and went with Jin as he pulled him out into the party.

To the energetic and boisterous sounds of the wood flutes, frame drums, tin whistle, and fiddle, Jin and his chattering, laughing tribe danced and Touya stood out like a cardinal in the white ash. Touya stood with his arms crossed tightly over his chest, absolutely still and rigid—Jin swore tree trunks were more pliant. Touya stared madly about in both fascination and trepidation of the dancing. More of one than the other, and Jin had no doubt of which.

"Not safe ta stand 'round," Jin gently warned, just as someone bumped into Touya. Jin caught him as he tumbled forward. Apologies were quickly given. Touya edged closer to Jin to keep out of any dancer's way. Jin laid a hand on Touya's shoulder, "Might as well go wit the wind an' let it take ya."

"I do not know how," Touya said. "My tribe… We do not perform such expression. It would be considered abhorrent, disgraceful, and a hindrance to the tribe."

"All the more reason why ya should do it," Jin said and Touya's eyes widened and blinked up at him. "Kiddin', kiddin'. …But ya should. Not for those reasons, but 'cause it be fun an' diff'rent than yer used ta. Can't make ya, I know, but I _really_ wish ya tried."

"I do admit to some interest…" Touya said as he watched Jin's tribe spin to the fast, airy music. "However, I do not think I am capable."

"Told ya didn't hafta be any good. Not all a' us be, but we dance anyway."

Touya shook his head. "It is not a matter of being equally skilled. It is a matter that I do not know how to dance."

"Ah, don't give me shit an' call it mud. 'Course ya can dance. Come on, show me. Don't be shy." Jin waited but all Touya gave was a flat stare. "Ya really don't know a lick, do ya? Makes sense, I suppose. Ah well, gonna hafta show ya a few steps, aren't I?"

"What?"

"You're not gettin' outta this," Jin said. "Told ya that already, I have."

"Jin, is this really necessary—"

"Hush," Jin said. "Nothin' ta worry 'bout. I'm not teachin' ya anythin' complicated. It'll be easy, real easy. Gimme yer hands." Jin took Touya's hands. "If lil' ankle-biters can do this, you can too. Just copy me feet."

Jin led Touya into a very simple dance—an easy step from one side to the other. Touya was nervous, though Jin figured he probably would be even if all he had to do was stand there. Couple of repeats and when Touya had the foot pattern down, Jin began swaying their arms from side to side.

"There," Jin said, grinning. "Not hurtin' ya now be it?

"No. It is…" Touya said, now quite used to the basic dance, "…okay, I suppose."

"Glad ta hear it!" Jin said as he swung their arms in a full circle and spun Touya.

Touya stumbled a bit through the sudden, awkward spin but made it through well enough as anyone, Jin figured. Definitely wasn't what Touya ever expected. Gave him quite a start, in fact. Touya stared wide-eyed at Jin and his cheeks were flushed pink. The surprise didn't stop him from dancing with Jin. If anything, it only helped him ease into the music. His own grin widening, Jin watched as a small but genuine smile peeked out across Touya's face as they danced.

Jin could have sworn he heard Touya softly laughing.

-o-

Touya had came with Jin because he was curious. Curious to learn more about the Spring Tribe and whether they were all like Jin or if he was just their super-enthusiastic, overeager exception. He had came with Jin to learn the truth, to discredit his uncle's lies, and to know better than Hyou. And so far…

His uncle and Hyou could not be further from the truth.

Most of the Spring Tribe was like Jin, though not all shared his same intense level of energy and a few even outclassed him. But, with the rare exclusion, the Spring Tribe were all honest and sincere people. And they were all _happy_. Touya had never seen so many smiling and laughing people in one space before.

But what Touya found even more odd was their candid reception of him. When Jin had first brought him in and everyone had gone silent, Touya had expected the worst. He had expected his usual treatment—sneers, cold stares, and insults—but the Spring Tribe had been more confused by the sight of him that anything else, and after Jin had started introducing him around, his tribe had completely welcomed him. As if he had always been one of them.

Touya had came with Jin in hopes of learning more about his tribe, and while he indeed was, Touya was also learning a lot more. Things about his own tribe. What his laugh sounded like. That his face could hurt from smiling too much.

Dizzy from dancing to the bright and bouncy music, he stumbled away from the remaining dancing partygoers and rested his back against a wall. There, he steadied his breathing. Touya closed his eyes.

His face was hot, there was sweat on his brow, and his heart was beating faster than it ever had before. He felt his blood pumping throughout his body. He was suddenly very alert and aware of himself and everything around him, of being here. He was fairly certain this was what it was like to be living, to be alive. He found it rather enjoyable.

"Ah! Wonderin' where ya got off ta," Jin said, as he walked up and stood beside Touya. "Lost ya when ev'rybody changed partners. Figured a lass snatched ya." Jin laughed.

Touya gave a small smile. "Just resting. Dancing is exhausting."

"Lotsa fun things are," Jin said. "But you're not used ta it just yet, but a coupla' dances in ya yet an' ya will. I know ya will."

"Jin, you do realize my tribe will be leaving soon?"

"Oh yea…" Jin said, his voice quiet, his smile falling, "…I forgot."

Jin's demeanor completely shifted. Touya could hardly believe the change. Jin stared down at the floor, his head bowed, his shoulders drooping. He pouted his bottom lip and tried unsuccessfully to hide the hurt in his eyes.

 _I do not understand how he could have forgotten,_ Touya thought, his own stare downcast and his chest heavy. _But it is clear to me that he did not wish to be reminded._

… _I deeply regret even bringing it up._

Sadness did not suit Jin and Touya wished to find a way to make him happy again. He was not entirely sure how. It was not as if he could say his tribe wasn't leaving. After all, it was the truth that neither boy could change. Jin was well aware of that, lost in his realizations, leaving Touya to break their glum silence.

"I had fun, Jin. Thank you," Touya said, putting on a smile, which quickly was no longer a put-on.

"Ah, knew ya would," Jin still kept his eyes down, though a tiny fanged smile started coming back to him. "Whole point a' me comin' an' gettin' ya."

"I will see you tomorrow then?" Touya asked, and to his hope, Jin brightened considerably. "However, I will come and find you. As soon as it is permissible. I promise."

"Hold ya ta that, I will," Jin said, much of his cheer returning. "Leave me waitin' too long an' I might come lookin' for ya."

"As soon as I can," Touya repeated with a look in his eyes asking Jin to be patient. "Jin, I am sorry but it is getting late. I should go."

"I know the party's runnin' down, but ya don't hafta go home just yet."

"I should," he said again and slid open the shoji door and stepped out.

The night winds were blustery tonight and burned against Touya's dance-flushed skin. Though his body was accustomed to withstanding lower temperatures, he felt the beads of sweat in his hair and on his brow crystallize to ice.

From his estimations, the time had to be around midnight, one at the latest. Which was good for Touya. It promised a little bit of sleep before he had to rise again to his chores.

Not that he had wanted to leave Jin. No, he hadn't wanted to at all, but the party did seem to be coming to a close. And Touya knew he would have to go home at some point tonight. There would be tranquil fury and questions if the servants reported his absence to his uncle. Touya would have no choice but to answer him honesty. He shuddered at the imagination.

 _I just hope that the servants do not think my departure for a few hours worthy of notification either,_ Touya thought, drawing in and biting his lower lip in worry. _While I am on good terms with our servants, they still look down upon me as a disgrace to the tribe. If anyone perceived my short disappearance as strange or inauspicious, loyalty to the tribe would send them whispering to Uncle. It is best I get home as swiftly as possible._

In the dark night, keen memory guided Touya through the streets. He had some help on the Spring Tribe's side from the occasional lit hanging lantern—presumably to help a lingering partygoer find their way home—though once he reached his tribe's side of the village, he knew there would be no such aid. He was almost crossing over to his tribe's side as it was.

"Touya…"

Startled a bit by the unexpected loud whisper of his name, Touya steadied a hand over his jumped heart. He turned around and, against the firelight glow coming through the shoji screen, he saw who it was. "Jin, what are you doing out here?"

Jin smiled sheepishly as he tipped his head down and scratched the back of his head. "Guess I just wanted ta make sure ya got home okay. Know ya probably won't think it a good idea, but I'll walk ya all the way back, if ya want me ta."

"I do not think that would be wise, but thank you, Jin." Touya smiled.

"Thought I'd offer," Jin said and then reluctantly added, "Guess I then…bettah go … See ya tomorrow, I will."

Touya nodded and turned to leave.

"Uh, Touya?"

Before he had a chance to fully face Jin and hear or inquire as to what he wanted, Touya noticed how suddenly near Jin was to him and felt Jin's arms wrap about his waist. Jin drew him toward him and Touya found he did not tense or resist Jin's pull. Though he wasn't sure why, he found himself stepping closer to Jin, wanting to be near, despite the practice of his tribe telling him to keep his distance.

In the cold night air, their flushed bodies were warm. Not needing, just wishing to feel more of their heat, Touya pressed himself against Jin and rested his cheek on his chest. He stood with his arms at his sides, too frozen by trepidation to return Jin's embrace, though he wanted to. He closed his eyes and listened to a heartbeat, not certain if it was Jin's or his own. Jin's hold was secure but gentle. His hands lay flat on Touya's back—he found the broad touch comforting. Touya swore, though he convinced himself he imagined it, that Jin bent down and kissed the top of his head.

After some time, Jin stirred. Touya opened his eyes.

"See ya tomorrow," Jin repeated softly and released his embrace. Cold night air blew in between them as he stepped back and then quickly left. He seemed rather unwilling to go, Touya noted.

Touya waited a breath-length and when he was sure Jin wasn't coming back, he crossed over into his tribe's side of the village. Despite his very soft steps, Touya's feet still made audible crunches in the snow. The noise was so clear in the silent, empty streets he worried whether the sound would alert his sleeping tribe.

He followed the gaps and back alleys from memory. Touya could fit through some tight spaces and knew all the shortcuts, having ran all through the village delivering messages and errands for his uncle or escaping Hyou and his minions playing "Rabbit Hunt"—a 'game' in which Touya was always the rabbit and the point of it seemed to be to chase him around and shoot hailstones at him, though luckily Touya was fast and all the ice apprentices were terrible shots.

Though he wasn't outside his sleeping quarters like he would have preferred, Touya made it home. As he stepped up onto the veranda, he noted that his face was still warm. He figured it was ruddy from the night air but knew Jin's hug had contributed to some of the blush. Touya smiled. He had his arms around his waist and gave himself a little hug in remembrance of Jin's. He had been so uncertain, even fearful of sneaking off with Jin, but now Touya was certain he had made the right choice in going. Even if for no other reason than that he had fun.

He slowly slid open the shoji door, slipped inside, and just as slowly and quietly shut the screen. The hallway was dark, but from what he could perceive, he was alone. He paused and listened. He heard not a noise in the house. Everyone had to be asleep, as they would be at this hour. Touya crept back to the servants' quarters, tiptoed over the feet of a sleeping maid, and finally reached the paper screen partitioning his space and his bed. There he exhaled his held breath and at last surrendered his worry.

Touya set aside the thin lid to the cast-off oak chest and untied the matching obi of his dark blue kimono. He heard the rustle of cloth brush against the tatami mat floor and thought that one of the servants turned over in their sleep.

Touya would be wrong.

"Where have you been, little cousin?" Hyou said, his voice low but its level of smug self-satisfaction reaching an all-time high.

Touya's eyebrows raised up in alarm. In his stunned surprise, his kimono fell from his hands and crumpled on the floor. Save a bit of underwear, Touya was completely naked. Thankfully for him, Touya stood with his back facing his cousin. Right now, his face was too expressive and the blush on his face too noticeable to meet with Hyou directly.

"…I could not sleep. I went for a walk."

Hyou curtly raised and dropped his eyebrows. "You had quite a stroll then, did you not?" Touya felt Hyou's eyes watching him, plundering for any show of weakness. Touya refused to allow him the satisfaction.

"I thought the night air would help," he replied, his voice and expression perfectly detached, as he put away the dark blue kimono and took out the white.

"You should be careful, Touya," Hyou said, feigning concern in his voice. "Walk too long out in the cold, black night and you might just not find your way back. You know our surroundings are far too unforgiving."

 _I am all too aware of that, cousin,_ Touya thought distastefully as he slipped the white kimono over his slim shoulders.

"But it seems you found your way back well enough. Replenishing sleep and early rise, little cousin," Hyou said wryly and smirked.

Hyou left and Touya knotted his obi quickly and went to bed, far less certain going with Jin had been a good choice after all.


	3. Chapter 3

Story Title: A Tale of Snowdrops

Disclaimer: YYH or Jin and Touya are not mine still.

-o-

Day Three: In Which Jin Plays in the Snow and Touya Must Make A Decision

-o-

Touya hoped this would be the last of Hyou's orders. This morning's demands had already included dressing him, bringing the fragrant water for his washing basin, washing his face, combing his hair and securing it into a topknot, and now delivering his breakfast. For some reason, though Touya thought of one and feared it, Hyou had decided to refuse the services of any other servant but his personal attendant, Touya.

And his cousin was shooting off commands at him as quickly as deer fled at the first sound of danger. Due to tending to all of Hyou's wants and needs, Touya had yet to complete any of his daily chores or even properly dress and present himself. He prayed for the mercy of his ancestors to not topple his uncle's errands on his already heavy shoulders this morning.

He tried not to look down at Hyou's breakfast tray but the wafting smell of it reached him anyway and his stomach gurgled and grumbled in protest to giving away so much food. It didn't seem fair, having to give this to Hyou while hungry since he had not been given any time to have his meager breakfast, but everything in Touya's life was unfair. So much so he couldn't categorize his life between fair and unfair—it simply was. And it was usually against his favor.

As he entered Hyou's room, Touya felt his laxly-tied obi slip as he stepped on the bottom of his kimono. He stumbled forward, the contents of Hyou's breakfast tray sliding about, as his robes opened and he struggled to regain his balance and not crash into Hyou. By some miracle, he managed to do just that and without a single item spilt.

"Watch it, chore boy!" Hyou irately ordered. "Do you _want_ to burn me? Or do you just want to ruin my robes and my meal?"

Touya was quick with apologies, "Pardon me, cousin, I didn't mean—"

"Look at you," Hyou said in a disgusted manner as he peered contemptuously at an embarrassed Touya, the left side of his kimono having fallen, exposing his slim shoulders and chest. "How dare you appear before your superior in such a manner… Fix yourself."

"Yes, Hyou," Touya muttered.

Hyou narrowed his eyes in a reprimanding manner.

"…Yes, young master," Touya amended.

Touya set the tray down on its stand, fixed his kimono, and kneeled aside and waited for Hyou's dismissal. And waited. And waited. It was soon clear to him that he was not about to be dismissed. Hyou still had plans for him and in the meantime, he would force Touya to stand by as he ate his breakfast and Touya went without. Both knew what would happen, that Touya's meager portion would be tossed out and he would later be punished for wasting food. Hyou delighted in the prospect. Touya dreaded it.

When he was finally done, Hyou ordered Touya to take his tray away. And he did so, wishing it was a true dismissal and not a partial one. By Hyou's tone and wording, he was expected to return to Hyou's room and wait new orders after he returned the tray.

 _Jin is waiting for me. I know he is,_ Touya thought as he headed back from the kitchen. _He is expecting me to appear any moment, and if not now, then this moment, or the next. Except I keep not showing up and I cannot. Not for a while. Not until I finish all of my chores. And Hyou stops ordering me for everything. I hope Jin does not become discouraged. I wish that he does not decide to search for me._

He returned to Hyou's room to find his cousin smirking and holding up a nail cleaning pick in between his toes. His drooping shoulders falling a little more, Touya sighed and lowered himself before Hyou's feet.

_Jin… Please wait for me. Please be patient._

-o-

They should have decided on a meeting place, Jin now realized, so he would know where to be when Touya showed up. Because without a set place, Jin kept wandering around, flying from his place, to meetinghouses, to the pathway to the forest, and down the line that separated the village for the Spring and Winter tribes, looking and waiting for Touya.

It was past breakfast already and he still had not shown up. Jin asked passing people from his tribe (because he would never get an answer from any of Touya's) if they had seen Touya come by but no one had. And with every apologetic no, Jin sighed, nodded and gave thanks and then flew off to the next spot in his cycle to wait and see if Touya would be there.

Trying to stay patient, trying to not fly off and get Touya like Touya didn't want him to do, Jin sat down on the veranda outside his room and waited. He sat cross-legged, holding his ankles, and started rocking from side to side. Jin wasn't very patient—it went against his nature—and he never really could sit still for very long but he tried because Touya had asked him to.

Jin _really_ wanted to go get Touya.

But he didn't. He told himself that he would be here any moment. If not this one, then this one or next. Point was that he would be here, he promised he would, and all Jin had to do was wait a little bit longer, pass the time, and Touya would be here. His rocking gained the glances of many walking by, but seeing it was Jin, his tribe thought nothing odd about his behavior.

He rocked and rocked until his momentum grew too strong and he fell over onto his side. He decided not to get up immediately and rested on his side. With every day, the temperature was warmer but it was still pretty chilly in the morning. It wouldn't be long until Jin needed to get moving or step inside for a bit of heat. But he hoped Touya would be here before that was needed.

Jin waited and waited. He saw not a pale blue hair around him.

"Jin, why ya layin' here? Come play," Shii said, tugging on his arm and forcing him to sit up.

"Yea, Jin, come play with us," Wara echoed.

"Sorry, but ol' Jin has ta wait for someone," Jin said as he ruffled Shii's hair. "Promised that I would and he promised he would come, so I'm gonna wait."

Her eyes and smile brightening, Magi considerably sweetened, "I bet you're waitin' for Touya, aren't ya?"

Jin grinned.

Shii groaned and covered his ears, "Ah, don't get her started! Magi hasn't shut up 'bout him yet. Thinks they're destined, 'er somethin'…"

"I wish you'd shut up!" Magi shouted back.

"He doesn't know ya exist, Magi," Wara said. "An' his face's still girly."

"Both a' ya jump in the lake, why don't cha?" Magi shouted. She then crossed her arms over her chest and huffed. " _Boys_ , ya know nothin' about love."

Jin laughed, "Ah, they know about as much as you, my love-struck lass."

A flush of what either was indignation or embarrassment (or a little of both) rose across Magi's face as she grew flustered and turned away.

"Really think he's your one an' only?" Jin said. "Bit old for ya, don't ya think?"

"That doesn't matter. Nevah does when it be true love."

"Aye, aye, you're right, lil' one. Give ya that, I will," Jin said through a partial laugh. "But if it be true love for ya an' Touya, don't ya think fate would put it so you're always together an' wouldn't he want ta be tryin' ta meet with ya right now."

"Well… He just doesn't know we're meant yet." Both Shii and Wara groaned and smacked their palms against their faces.

"But if it were true love, he would already, wouldn't he? Ya already met, after all."

Magi rolled her eyes. "Like you know anythin' 'bout love, Jin. No lass'll take your hand, other than ta dance with."

"So that be so?" Jin said, playing along. "Now where did ya hear a thing like that?"

"Be what all the girls say. Notta one wants ta be your one an' only."

"Ah, that be fine with me," Jin said, waving his hand. "No loss either way."

"Yea, Jin's great wit'out one," Shii said. "Girls are crazy!"

"An' Magi's livin' proof," Wara added.

Magi swung at Wara first and then her brother. Both boys missed her fist and ran off quickly with the fuming, yelling girl racing after them. Jin shook his head and laughed to himself. It was nice seeing little Magi acting more like herself. He made a note, though, to have Touya talk to her, to finish what he had started in letting her down.

 _Hafta get here first, he does._ Jin laid his head into his hands and sighed. _Hope he gets here soon._

Jin waited and waited. He was doing so well at sitting so still and being very patient for once that a few of his fellow tribe members, considering a very still and calm Jin to be a cause for concern, came over to ask him if he was feeling all right, if anything bothered him, or if he needed to see the medicine woman. And every time Jin reassured them that he was fine, that he was just waiting. Garnering a couple of confused stares but deciding to take his word for it, eventually his tribe mates eased off on him.

Head still in his hands, Jin started to nod off when his ears started twitching. He snapped awake and surveyed wildly about for the source of the coming noise.

"I been waitin' for ya," Jin shouted from the near end of the street as Touya came running. "For a _real_ long time. Almost went lookin' for ya, I did."

Touya slid in the white ash to a stop and stood panting, his face pink from exertion. "Sorry, I am late," he said. "An issue came up that I could not slip by."

"That's okay," Jin said. "You're here now an' that's what matters. Let's have fun, right?"

Touya offered a tiny smile back, which quickly disappeared into his deepening blush as his stomach rumbled and roared.

Jin laughed through his grin. "Little late for breakfast but Miyo'll fix that. Come now."

And Miyo did. From the moment Jin poked his head into the kitchen doorway and asked if there was anything for Touya, Miyo pulled Touya in by the wrist, muttering aloud that his wrist was much too bony, sat him down at a round table, and hurried off to gather plates, baskets, and bowls. Jin quickly joined him at the table.

Miyo laid a spread out on the table that could feed four and piled on all she could on a plate for him, much to a shy, blushing Touya's embarrassment and his quiet voice noting his 'appreciation for the gesture but there was quite enough already there for him' that Miyo dismissed.

"Ah, nevah be too much, sweet boy. Food makes ya big, makes ya strong," Miyo set the full plate in front of Touya and gave him a quick once-over. "An' by the looks, ya could use a little a' both."

"But Toy's strong!" Jin said. "Real strong. I felt his power before."

Miyo shook her head in a disagreement, as she ladled out a portion of this morning's stew into a big bowl. "All that sparkle an' show be good for nothin' if the body's not well enough ta give it." She looked back on Touya. "Ah, come now, dearie. Ya hafta take bigger bites that that."

Uncertain of what else to do, Touya apologized, claiming it was habit. He was used to making his meals last for much longer than their portion size would allow.

Setting his stew by his plate, Miyo patted Touya's shoulder reassuringly. "Be all right then now. Habit's habit," she said, smiling down at him, before she swiftly spooned a mound of food into his mouth. "Now _that's_ a proper bite, me lad."

Miyo walked off, leaving Touya to struggle a bit on the verge of choking before he finally managed to swallow her bite. Touya paused to catch his breath.

Jin leaned toward Touya, "Okay there?"

"Yes," Touya said. "It was just more than I expected. All of this is. Are you sure this is acceptable? I am not causing any issue here, am I?"

"Ah, not at all," Jin shook his head. "Don't worry 'bout us, Toy. We got plenty. Things are gettin' better, easier ta find. Eat as much as ya want. Anythin' ya don't be preserved an' anythin' that can't will get eaten."

"There is still so much here…"

"Told ya not ta worry, Toy," Jin said, grinning. "I'll help ya. Be about time fer me second breakfast anyway."

As soon as Jin put a hand on a hardboiled egg, Miyo paddled it with a wooden spoon. "Stop it! Stop it!" she scolded him. "Eatin' already, I know ya have. Now shut your greedy mouth f0r a while an' let the poor dearie eat."

"But I'm hungry too!" Jin pouted, sucking on his reddened hand.

Miyo flattened her stare, "You're always hungry, Jin. Gnaw on your own hand, ya would."

"Please, madam," Touya interceded, "there is plenty enough for the two of us."

After a moment or two of hard deliberation, she conceded. "All right," Miyo said. She then fixed a sharp stare on Jin and pointed her wooden spoon at him. "Just make sure he eats more."

Miyo left them alone to check on the small crew cleaning and scrubbing plates and pots—most of the Spring Tribe tended to be big eaters, which resulted in a lot of dishes—and Jin made sure his friend ate as much as he.

Touya was smaller in stature and build, yes, but Jin didn't see it as a particular cause for concern and correction like Miyo seemed to. Jin just figured it was normal for the Winter Tribe. After what Touya had said about his tribe yesterday and Jin did a little of putting two and two together, it was logical that the Winter Tribe would be smaller. Touya was thin, yes, but he wasn't sickly-looking. Jin had held him up in the sky before and he knew he wasn't all bone under his kimono's padding. In fact, given what knew and could plainly see, Jin thought Touya was…

Pretty.

Jin wasn't certain if he could call him handsome, as Touya's features didn't fit the definition of manly but Jin without a doubt believed Touya was pretty and in fact, he thought he was very beautiful. Not that Touya probably thought he was. Jin had a feeling he didn't know he was, not that his tribe would ever let him know.

As soon as Jin found a moment, he swore he would let Touya know how beautiful he was.

They ate and ate until Touya felt he was full and then Jin made him eat a little more and so did Miyo when she returned. By the end of their urgings, Touya looked quite ready to pop. Didn't stop Miyo from trying to offer him more, however. After much pleading, assertions, and polite declining, Touya and Jin headed out of the kitchen. Well, mostly Touya wanted to. Jin was still kind of hungry. Touya hated leaving a mess, though, and offered to help clean up but Miyo assured it was nothing she couldn't quickly clear. She also invited Touya to lunch, which she and her two assistants were already working on.

Jin walked with Touya through the streets with no discernible destination in mind yet. Truthfully, he hadn't really planned on what they would do today, being much too focused on seeing Touya when he got here, but he had figured he'd let the wind take them wherever and see what sort of fun they could get themselves into.

He looked over and saw Touya holding and staring at his stomach. "I do not believe I will ever eat again," he said.

"Wasn't that bad, now was it?"

"No, it was all very good. I am just not used to having so much," Touya said. "I feel as if I would never be hungry again, like in the mists."

"Well, that be great," Jin said. "But if ya ever find yourself hungry again, Miyo would be happy ta feed ya."

"She is a generous woman."

"Closest thing I ever had to a real mam," Jin said and, when he saw Touya looking at him, interest in his eyes, he continued. "Me mam died in childbirth. An' me father, story goes, believed he saw me mam in mists, heard her callin' for him an' walked back into them before it was time for us ta go an' nevah came back. Ev'rybody's searched the mists when we travel through but nobody's seen 'em."

"It has always been advised that we do not approach the mists until it is time for us to depart. There appears to be some truth to the warning."

"Ah, yea, nobody does it. Won't even joke about doin' it. Lads an' lassies goin' in an' not comin' out, nobody finds that funny," Jin said. "So what 'bout your parents, Toy?"

"They are dead."

"Oh…" Jin said, his smile fading, halting his steps in the middle of the street. "Ah, sorry, Toy. Didn't mean ta bring anythin' up that…"

"No harm done," Touya said, offering Jin a small, reassuring smile. "They died when I was a baby and I have grieved for them already."

"Ah, well, um…still didn't mean—"

"Jin!" Little Shii called as he, Magi, and Wara came running and slid to a stop in front of him. "We're all goin' by the lake ta play an' we want ya ta play too."

"That an' our mams won't let us get near the lake without somebody watchin'," Wara added.

"So will ya come?" Shii asked.

Three bright, hopeful face beamed up at Jin and plead with him to say yes and really, what sort of big brother-figure would he be if he said no? That and Jin had a few ideas of fun they could have at the lake, well, more correctly, the large pond but none of the kids really wanted to argue over semantics.

"All right, all right," Jin said. "Be just the three a' ya, 'er be it ev'ryone."

"Ev'ryone," Wara and Shii answered together.

"Let's go then."

"Come too, Touya," Magi said and took his hand.

 _Even bettah_ , Jin thought as Shii and Wara challenged him to a race to the lake. _Why I didn't think ta introduce Toy ta the little ones, I don't know. After all, I was showin' Toy me tribe yesterday. Be crazy a' me, it would, ta leave out a big part a' it. Not like I could hide them all from him, hahaha._

-o-

Touya stopped trying to count the Spring children when he reached the twenties and even then he wasn't so sure on the number. There were just so many of them and none of them could really sit for long. They were all constantly moving, chasing, and rolling with one another about, making it near impossible to get a true head count.

"All right, lil' birds, pay attention!" Jin called.

And to Touya's amazement, all the Spring children stopped where they were, sat, and listened. Not that they sat completely still, there was still some rocking, bouncing, ear wiggling, and heads swaying to imaginary music, but in comparison to moments before, the difference was pretty distinct.

Jin gave out the lake rules—mostly boiling down to 'don't get in the water 'cause it's too cold' and 'don't do anything that'll get us both in trouble' as Touya watched the children's faces. They really respected Jin. There was no doubt about that. If they would listen to no one else, they would listen to Jin. They would follow him, out of respect, out of admiration, out of affection. Touya thought of Hyou, how the children obeyed him out of fear, and how his uncle used the same tactics to control the tribe and persuade the other elders to his will.

The final rule given, the children stood up, eager to run off and play. Jin asked if there were any questions. Shii raised his hand. Jin gave him the go-ahead nod to ask.

"Bramble!" was all Shii shouted as all the kids rushed and pounced on Jin. Touya stepped back, confused, and watched in wonder as Jin disappeared under the giggling blanket of Spring children. And then, Jin rose, kids hanging onto him everywhere—on his arms, legs, back, and chest, even one perched on his head. And the ones not on him held onto brothers, sisters, onto anyone and anyhow they could.

"Ah, think all ya can overpower ol' Jin, can ya?" Jin said, grinning as he lifted the kids on his arms higher. "Try ya might, ya lil' bug-eaters, but it's nevah gonna happen."

Touya covered a hand over his small smile as Jin pretended to be a monster and stomped and roared for the kids as they tried to slow him and bring him down. Jin was good with the kids. Touya wasn't sure if it was partly because he was so much like them or if it had to do with their mutual respect or if it was something else entirely. He enjoyed watching Jin play with the kids, seeing their bright, smiling faces, and hearing them laugh. And Jin was equally as happy as the children. They brought a cheer to Jin, and yes, while Jin was typically always happy, the joy they brought to Jin was something altogether new. And sweet.

In time, Jin set the kids down and told them it was time they ran off and played. Most agreed, some wanting the bramble game to continue groaned, but one by one the kids pulled off from Jin and started chasing one another or ran off to climb trees, or whatever came to mind first.

Jin looked at Touya. "Crazy lil' rats, but they're all good kids."

"You are really good with them," Touya said.

"Their big brother, I am," Jin said. "Don't have no real family anymore but they'll do for me. Makes me a part a' their family as much as they be ta mine."

Touya considered the meaning of family and thought of his own tribe until Jin broke his focus by calling to him, referring to him by his new nickname of 'Toy'. Touya wasn't certain if he liked the sudden familiarity Jin was showing to him by use of the shortened name. He didn't know if it was that he didn't feel as close to Jin as Jin felt to him or if it was that he was hesitant to accept and enjoy the new level of familiarity out of fear of his tribe learning how close the pair of them were. In the end, Touya said nothing about his new name, unable to think of something that wouldn't ultimately hurt Jin's feelings.

Jin leaned over and whispered in Touya's ear. He could certainly do the ice manipulation Jin requested but there was the stress of his uncle's voice as his consciousness reminding him of what a waste of energy it would be. And while he had done things before that squandered energy, it would take much more energy to do what Jin wanted than it took to make snowflakes. His uncle's voice made a fairly valid argument but Jin's big, hopeful, and slightly pleading eyes carried a stronger persuasion.

Touya stood by the edge of the large pond and brought his energy to the surface as he sensed the moisture around him. Reaching his energy into the water as if he was dipping his hand, Touya captured as much water as he could and pulled it to the surface, carefully freezing it into the right shape and without leaving any sharp surfaces. From there, he jettisoned his power and froze the pond's surface. Jin's last request had Touya pouring his energy into the sky to make a small snow flurry fall to build up the snow around them.

Whether by sensing or simply seeing the pale green light of his energy, the kids paused in their play and stood around watching him. Even the ones who had gone out into the surrounding woods came out and stared. Touya was only vaguely aware of the audience, his focus more importantly placed on his energy and ice technique. He heard the kids' little gasps and awes and he could feel Jin smiling at him, like a ray of warm sunlight at his side.

A fair enough snowfall built, Touya drew back his energy. First thing he saw when his attention could be anywhere else was Jin sliding down the ice slide and across the frozen lake.

"Now all a' ya can play on the lake all ya want," he called out to the kids.

And the kids came running. Not many of them knew how to walk on the ice, but even when the lot of them went tumbling, they were still giggling and having fun falling and sliding around. Soon there were kids pushing one another around the ice, others riding the ice slide, building snowmen, and, inevitably, having snowball fights.

Touya observed the children playing. An odd juxtaposition of thoughts was in his head—of course of lately none of that was anything new going on in his head. He had always known how to manipulate his powers as per his uncle's instruction. He knew how to cause harm, to kill. Any other sort of use was frivolous, a waste.

But it didn't have to be. They could have fun with their ice manipulation. Not every piece of ice ever made had to be a blade. Ice could be smooth and snow had more uses than a quick blinder. It didn't have to be all about striking this, kill-point here. His tribe could have made ice slides for their children, let them make snowmen. There were many other things they could have done with their powers if his uncle had permitted it. He hadn't even allowed the thought.

Touya heard the snow crunch near him. He peered over his shoulder to find a little girl, one of the youngest there, trying to walk through the snow. She succeeded on a few steps and then plopped face-first into the snow. She stood herself up and tried again, only to land back in the snow. As Touya went over to help her, the little girl raised her arms to be carried. Softly smiling, he picked her up. Soon as she was in his arms, she held onto his robes and laid her head down on his shoulder.

"Found yourself a wee one, haven't ya?" Jin said, shaking the remnants of smashed snowball out of his hair, as he walked to him. "Or should I say she found ya?"

"A little of both," Touya said, adjusting his hold, as the little girl suckled on her fingers.

"Know this one well, I do. A sweetheart, she be," Jin said as he crouched down to the girl's level. As he reached to play with her, the girl protested and batted his hand away.

Jin blinked. "Ah, don't like me no more, lil' lass. Rather cuddle up on Toy, would ya?" Still crouched, Jin peered up at Touya and grinned. "Really have a way with the girls, Toy. Luck a' the fair wind, I'm not the jealous-type."

Jin laughed as he ruffled the little girl's hair and Touya wondered if he had heard Jin right, if he had meant to say what he had. He had figured Jin knew what he had said but had just used the wrong phrasing. Or perhaps Touya was overthinking matters.

Jin stared serenely as he watched the kids. "Look at 'em all playin' in the white ash."

"Why do you call it that?" Touya asked.

"'Cause it be what it be. White. Ash. Fallin' from the sky." His expression must have been poor as Jin scrunched up his in confusion. "What do you call it then?"

"Snow."

"Snow?" Jin thought on it. "Yea, that makes sense too."

"You say that like it does not," Touya said, smiling.

"Well, ta me white ash makes perfect sense, but I'm not used ta the stuff anyway. Your 'snow' be a part a' your world so your word for it has ta make sense too. …Does that make any sense?"

"Just enough," Touya said as he made a check to see if the quiet little girl was still awake and she was. In fact, seeing she had Touya's attention, she starting cooing and babbling her own opinion to Touya.

"Yea, that's right!" Jin said to the little girl.

Touya quirked an eyebrow curiously at Jin, "Do you understand her?"

"Not a lick," Jin proudly admitted. "But it sounds important, doesn't it?"

To Jin's grin, Touya could not help but smile as the little girl weaved a story no one but her could understand.

They walked about, making a round and checking on the kids, settling disputes, helping build snowmen and snow castles here and there. Along the way, they found the little girl's siblings. Her older sister had been looking for her and was grateful to take her back, much to the little girl's displeasure.

As she fussed and held out her arms for Touya to take her, Jin kneeled and hugged the little girl. "Ah, don't cry, little one. No more tears. You'll see your new friend Touya later. Promise we'll come an' visit. Promise, sweetheart."

Touya wasn't certain if he was just saying that to please the little girl or if he had forgotten again how his tribe was leaving for the mists soon. Touya didn't think it was wise for anyone if he brought it back up. Or explain how he doubted he would be able to get away from his tribe later on to make any visits. Given the circumstances, it was simply more polite to remain quiet.

Leaving the little girl to the care of her sibling, Jin and Touya resumed walking about. Touya noticed Jin looking away across the clearing. He asked him what it was he saw.

"Not sure. Thought I saw somethin' 'round the snow banks. Swore, I did," Jin said. "Not the first time either."

Touya looked where Jin had said but saw nothing out of place, no movement. "Might have been a rabbit," he speculated. "Though it would be a little too boisterous—"

Whatever Touya had left to say was immediately cut off in a rush of red and surprise. Touya fell back, hit the ground, and rolled along in the snow for several dizzying cycles. When the spinning finally subsided, he found himself on his back, catching his breath, his face undoubtedly pink from the sudden exertion. And Jin on top of him, one hand pressing down his right shoulder, the other down on his left arm, using the rest of his weight to hold Touya down.

Touya's eyes widened into moons as his already quickened heartbeat thumped fast. No doubt his face was far from simply pink now. "Jin, what are you doing?" he asked, unable to hide the quiver in his voice.

"Tumblin' in the white ash with me best friend," Jin said, still grinning. Touya rather wished he did not look so pleased. Or that he did not look so good that Touya could not look away.

"Ah, don't look so scared. Know by now I'm not gonna hurt ya, ya should."

"I am not scared. I am—"

"Shier than a new fawn," Jin said. "But that's okay. Also okay ta admit I caught ya off-guard."

Touya tried to laugh but having little breath, it came out more like a soft gasp. "I suppose there is no reason to try and deny that," and then he said, "You could let me back up, you know?"

"Well, it takes two ta tumble an' chase an' you're not puttin' up much a' fight, so…" Jin said expectantly, his grin spreading as his words trailed off.

It was then Touya saw the mischievousness, the playfulness in his eyes, a look that was so natural and common to Jin it was practically his default expression, prompting Touya to respond. He turned his head to the side, closed his eyes, and smiled. It was such a relief. He had thought, at first sight of Jin on top of him, that he had had other intentions. Touya, unused to such closeness, such directness, had merely misunderstood.

Again, it was such a relief.

"You will not catch me off guard again," Touya said, flashing his own playful smile, as he smacked a handful of snow into Jin's face.

Maybe it was silly and perhaps he felt foolish and more childish than he had ever felt before, but running around and tumbling in the snow with Jin was fun. Touya swore Jin used the wind to keep ahead of him but every time he was just about ready to quit running and call him out on it, Jin would let him catch him. On his turn, Jin would always catch him quickly—the wind's advantage, Touya suspected.

"Ah, Toy?" Jin said one turn. "I saw somethin'."

"I will not fall for that twice, Jin." Besides, he was already on his back again.

"Nah really. I saw somethin'," Jin said, ending their play as he rose to his feet.

Touya sat up and looked with Jin. This time didn't seem to be a ploy, a minor prank to throw off his attention. This time there really was something there. It was a young Winter boy, peeking over the snow bank.

"Hey!" Jin called. "All a' ya can play too. Don't be 'fraid. Come out."

The Winter boy disappeared under the snow, but not before many of the other kids saw him as well. Following Jin's lead, the rest of the Spring children called to the Winter kids to come play, their eager voices sounding together like a flock of chittering birds.

Slowly, the Winter boy poked up from the snow bank and one-by-one another uncertain, wide-eyed Winter child appeared until Touya knew all of the younger kids had emerged. Not that was exactly a large group, just eleven kids to the Spring Tribe's…well, there were more Spring kids than his tribe's, to put it simply. To no wonder, of course. The birthrate for the Winter Tribe was extremely low, infrequent, and heavily regulated by the tribe's elders.

The Winter kids looked at Touya. They were looking to him for permission. As the only and oldest of their tribe there, the Winter kids had to defer to him. It was what they knew to do—if there was not an adult present, the children obeyed the older children. Namely Hyou, most of the time. The children were very still and cautious, eyeing Touya almost fearfully. Touya did not take offense. The children were, after all, used to Hyou's command.

Touya gave his tribe's children a reassuring smile and nodded it was all right. Still the kids were hesitant and talked quietly amongst themselves. He had no question that they were debating whether to follow his go-ahead. Being a disgrace to his tribe, the children normally would not obey him for fear of getting in trouble for listening to him. That and there had always been someone else, Hyou, to yield to. Today had been the first time they had to follow him.

The decision finally made, the Winter children timidly came out from the snow banks and approached the others. The Spring children made no pause in saying hello to the surprise and worry of the Winter children, huddling together as so many Spring children surrounded them, all eager to be friends.

It all reminded Touya of his and Jin's meeting in the woods. Jin's presence had concerned him as well—in truth, it still did but only in fear of his tribe catching him with Jin. Otherwise, without that fear looming above him, Touya could think of no other person he had ever felt so comfortable with.

The children shared a bit of chatter before the Spring tribe children, in the manner of their honorary big brother, grabbed the Winter kids by the hand and hurried off with them to show them the ice slide, the frozen lake, and their snow creations. Soon they were all chasing, talking, having snowball fights, and playing hide and seek together.

Touya thought that perhaps they would be needed to mediate any rising quarrels between the two tribe's children but none of that was necessary. Granted the Winter children were more reserved and meeker but the Spring children didn't bully them. They all got along quite well. Touya knew his elders would be appalled to see their kids, not only playing, but being amicable with the other tribe's kids.

 _You let them near our children_ , Touya heard his uncle's voice in his head. _You exposed them to those dirty little grub-eaters. The danger you have placed them in is insurmountable. Are you even able to comprehend the harm you have done to them? Of course, you cannot._

_This is not the will of the tribe, nephew._

Touya stood still, swallowing his breath harshly as he wondered if he had been right in giving the children permission to play. In the moment it had seemed okay, harmless, but now he was less certain.

"Look at 'em," Jin said. "Your kids, our kids… Doesn't matter to them what tribe be which, they're just kids playin' with other kids. An' they're perfectly happy. If this be any proof a' anythin' it be that we can all be friends."

 _This is not the will of the tribe, nephew,_ his uncle's voice repeated. Touya tried his best to push aside or in the least ignore his uncle's voice.

"Ah! Reminds me that I think ya should talk ta Magi. Talked ta her earlier already, I did, but ya should too. Still got that heavy crush on ya, she does." Jin cupped his hands around his mouth and called for Magi.

She was apparently not far off and probably heard Jin talking about her.

"What! I be doin' nothin' bad," Magi said, in a voice that always meant a child was up to something they shouldn't. "Just playin' with me new friend." At that, a young Winter boy, his face as red as Magi's hair, peeped out over the snow mound.

"Ah, just checkin' on ya, lass. Go back ta playin'." Jin grinned as he turned to Touya. "Well, don't hafta let her down, after all. She's already over ya."

"That is a relief," Touya said and then looked back uneasily in Magi and the Winter boy's direction. "Though, do you not think we should…"

"Ah, nothin' wrong. At her age, Magi's not a full wild beast yet. Worst she'll do ta the boy be nip him a bit," Jin laughed as he wrapped an arm about Touya's shoulders and walked with him. "All kids sneak kisses an' cuddle, an' hold hands behind parents' backs 'er from the other kids so they don't get made fun of. Some adults do it too. Nothin' ta worry 'bout."

Touya nodded in agreement. After all, it was logic he understood very well already.

Because children do not know how to speak subtly and even repressed children like the Winter kids who grow up knowing their words can lead to trouble and punishment cannot be completely subtle, it became quite apparent to Touya that the Winter children preferred his lead over any other older Winter kid's.

Which doesn't say much actually. It wasn't anything more than that he was actually kind and played with them and didn't order them around. Natural decency, as Touya was aware of now, seemed wondrous when you were not used to it. As it was, Touya still wasn't all that accustomed to it either. Jin could still surprise him with a smile, a laugh here and there, or a light touch. It still boggled Touya that someone could and would want his company.

Later on, he was sitting on the ground with a few of his tribe's kids surrounding him, one little girl stood behind him hugging his neck. The kids asked him why the adults always told them that he was so bad, to stay away from him, and what a disgrace was.

"It is…complicated," Touya said, trying to answer delicately without giving much of an answer at all. "I do not completely comprehend it myself. Sorry."

"But you're so nice," said the girl around his neck. "Why do we have to hate you?"

"Our tribe has certain rules, laws, and manners of conduct and they must be followed."

"Those rules are stupid," said a boy. "All we do is sit and be quiet, if we're not being punished. We don't play, told not to get near you or the other tribe, and nothing bad happened when we did, so why can't we?"

"Yea, why not us? Why can't we play?"

"The other kids play and they're nice too. Why did no one let us meet before, Touya?"

"It is the way of our tribe," Touya said as the children frowned and pouted in disagreement. "…I never said it made much sense."

"Tomorrow, we'll play with the other kids again, right? And you'll come too, right?"

"I cannot promise with certainty," Touya said, "but we will try."

The kids cheered and then got up and went off to play with their new friends. They called to Touya to join them but as Jin came up from behind him, much to his surprise, and wrapped his arms loosely around his shoulders, Touya stayed behind.

_As loud and lively as Jin is, from time to time he somehow manages to catch me unawares. Being quiet and subtle does not at all match with Jin's nature. But he can be. Clearly, he can. It may always surprise me but the surprise is not unwelcome._

"Fair ta say this been the best day," Jin said, giving his shoulders a little squeeze. "Really made your lil' snowflakes happy."

"I think your birds might have helped." _It will not be easy when we leave._

"Your snowflakes an' my birds. Happy…" Jin said, his voice quiet and reflective.

Touya glanced over but could not tell what Jin was thinking. Not that was entirely new. Touya was usually left wondering and guessing what for sure Jin was thinking but this time, he was wondering more than usual.

Jin was silent, a very odd and rare occurrence for him, as he considered and thought over something only he knew, what with Touya at a loss for possibilities. For once, Jin felt so distant, despite the fact he was still laxly hugging Touya.

Jin stared out into nothing, so lost in his thoughts. Touya's only indication of his thoughts was his expression and even that was muddled. Jin's feelings usually came across so clearly. He was open. He was direct. But his expression now blended the lines between happy and sad so far Touya couldn't tell which he wanted to feel more.

"Toy, somethin' I wanna tell ya," he said with such softness Touya grew concerned.

Jin took Touya's hand and drew him around to face him. They stood in silence, hand in hand. Touya felt his warmth, these lively vines of warmth wrap about his hands. He felt secure. He felt safe. Touya peered down and saw his hands cupped in Jin's but his mind was so fuzzy, he barely recognized them. They looked so small and pale.

And Jin was Jin, ever smiling, but something was also very different about him. It was the look in his eyes. His gaze was bright and warm and intense. Like sunlight. His eyes radiated such a strong emotion. Touya wasn't sure at all what emotion it exactly was but he was both drawn to and fearful of it. And the more Jin met his eyes and stared into his, the more uncertain and nervous Touya became. His hands trembled first and then the rest of him joined in. Touya tried to avert his stare but still felt Jin looking. Touya's cheeks quickly heated.

He wondered why he was looking at him, what was this deep feeling he was showing him, and would he tell him what it was after he told him whatever it was he wanted to tell him.

"Toy," Jin said, "I lo—"

" _Touya,_ " the harsh call snapped through and silenced Jin's gentle words.

Heart leaping up and pounding in his ears, Touya broke his hands free from Jin's and found his fear confirmed. Hyou and two lackeys stood across from them. One lackey smirked. The other sneered. Hyou wore no expression but a deep scowl, his stare hard and fixed on Touya.

"Our kids better run home. Now. If any of you stay or if you come back, you _will_ be the rabbits in the next hunt," Hyou said, his voice firm yet detached. The Winter kids instantly obeyed, running and tripping over their own feet to hurry away fast enough.

Hyou's eyes stayed on Touya. "Just _what_ do you think you are doing?"

"I…" Touya said and from there, he blanked.

"He isn't doin' nothin'," Jin said, stepping forward. "Just havin' fun. An' so were your kids."

"No one _asked_ you!" he snapped at Jin and sneered in disgust for being addressed by him. His anger cutting through his calm mask, Hyou quickly focused back on Touya, "You know there is work to be done and here you are lollygagging around with _them_. Have you not shamed our tribe enough? Come. Now. The ceremony is almost in order. Or would you prefer to be late and—"

A snowball splattered across the side of Hyou's face. Hyou looked shocked. Touya looked shocked. Magi, Wara, and Shii, each ready with another snowball, laughed. Jin tried not to laugh and failed.

Touya watched Hyou. He watched him needle his sidelong glare into the laughing kids. He watched the blizzard rage in his pale gray eyes. Shock transmuted to rage as Hyou curled his hands into tight fists.

" _You filthy—"_ he spat and swung at the kids. Three ice daggers shined in the sunlight as they flew toward their three young marks.

A Jin-shaped blur rushed past Touya. Racing ahead, Jin coursed the wind and sent a sudden, strong gust that blew the daggers into a thick tree trunk. He turned and glared at Hyou.

Touya knew it was Jin but he also had to remind himself that it was him standing there. Because Jin's dark expression did not match the kind, smiling, cheerful Spring boy Touya knew. Jin was mad, like he had been when that brute tried intimidating Touya last night. There was a great burst of wind as Jin pushed off and rushed toward Hyou. Touya did not see much of his flight but he did see Jin as he slowed just before reaching Hyou.  He saw the moment his flying fist smashed into Hyou's face.

Hyou crashed against a tree, his head bouncing against its wide trunk, and slid to the ground.

" _Don't evah bully the little ones,_ " Jin said.

Hyou's lackeys tried helping Hyou to his feet but had to drag, wrench, and hold him up by themselves. Hyou was useless. He sobbed and cursed Jin and his tribe, using a few lower-class swears Touya had no idea Hyou even knew, as he held his hand protectively over his right cheek.

Despite the clear skies, the trees violently swayed, smaller branches snapped, as if there was a looming storm. It puzzled Touya at first before he realized the wind was mirroring Jin's mindset. Jin was angry, so was the wind. They could feel the rapid swell and change in air pressure around them as his power rose. Hyou and his lackeys held one another and eyed Jin fearfully.

"Oh, so suddenly you're not so big an' bad no more," Jin said wryly, hands on both his hips. "Guess it's diff'rent when you're not pickin' on lil' kids an' Toy. Wanna prove you're tough, why don't ya pick on me? Happy ta oblige ya, I'd be. Love ta put a few more shiners on that weasel face a' yours, I would. Ya could use the color."

Hyou put up hands and cowered, sobbing apologies Touya knew were false and were only for saving his neck. Still, he made for a pitiful sight, one that Jin was not going to fall for. And when he realized Jin wasn't going to stop on his own, Touya knew he had to stop him himself.

"Jin!" Touya called and Jin, one hand pulling Hyou up by his robes and the other cocked back into a ready punch, stopped and looked at him. " _…Please._ "

Jin met his eyes and then looked back at Hyou. Touya could see him debating, wanting to go on and knowing Hyou deserved it but gave in for Touya's sake.

"Ya bettah understand this," Jin said to Hyou as he released him and pointed at Touya. "It be by his grace, not mine, that you're not gettin' your ass kicked from here all across the mists. Should thank him for it, but I know ya won't."

Slowly, Hyou rose from the ground, fearful of Jin but staring hard toward Touya. His lackeys finally mustered up the courage and helped Hyou stand. "Touya. Come. Now," he ordered.

Touya obeyed. As he headed over to his cousin's side, Touya paused in front of Jin and gazed into his equally saddened stare. "I am sorry…" he said before he went over and stood at Hyou's side as his lackeys crowded around him.

Hyou touched the bruise and winced. "Filthy muck elf," he murmured, though Touya knew it had still been loud enough for Jin to overhear. Thankfully, he did not react.

After Hyou gave the command and as they walked back, Touya peeked over shoulder at Jin, briefly saw him frowning but was turned abruptly back around by Hyou. Touya stared down at the snowy earth.

He continued to stare downward while Hyou and neither of his lackeys said anything as they headed back to their side of the village. Once thoroughly on their side, Hyou grabbed Touya and pinned him against a wall.

"I know it is difficult for you, Touya, but do not be stupid," Hyou said, his stare narrowed, his voice and features sharp and cold. "Even you should know better than to walk on cracked ice."

Touya had tried to remain impassive but he had let out a small surprised gasp in the sudden shock.

"Do you wish to die?" Hyou asked.

 _Sometimes, but not once since I met Jin._ "N-No, cousin."

"Peculiar manner of showing that, do you think? Or do you merely believe I am as stupid as you, Touya?" Hyou snorted derisively. "A walk in the night air… I doubt that is the full truth, little cousin. Fact is that I have few doubts of where you actually were last night."

 _So I feared._ Touya swallowed his air roughly.

"If you are not careful, Father will hear about this. And you know what he will think, what will happen, Touya. If you have a death wish, then by all means, slosh about in the muck. But if you have even an inkling of self-preservation left, you will start thinking with that big head of yours and you will start thinking _for_ the tribe."

"Yes, Hyou," Touya quickly muttered.

"Come on," Hyou ordered, releasing him from the wall and shoving him forward. "The elders are waiting."

-o-

Touya sat bowed, staring at the wooden floor of the circular platform he sat on in the middle of the meetinghouse reserved for rituals. The eight elders of his tribe also sat on the platform, his uncle directly across from Touya and the chief at his uncle's right. The remaining adults, and only the adults, sat in attendance around the platform.

The air was hazy and harsh with the smoke and stench of burnt pine needles. Only two braziers placed on opposite ends dimly lighted the meetinghouse. What little light that flickered softly there was, was all that was needed. Touya glimpsed up and saw the light reflecting in his uncle's gray eyes and off his angular features, pale skin and stark light blue hair. The light reflected off all the others, including himself, in this manner. Shadows enveloped their forms and danced beside the light. Touya noted that far more shadow than light existed in the meetinghouse and across the elders and observing adults.

All was silent until the chief spoke the ritual's commencing words. His voice was deep but bore no emotion or inflection. The ritual began with the same words that preceded most of the tribe's rituals and creeds, "There is no self, only the tribe. There is no self-will, only the will of the tribe. Every action, every thought, every breath is for the tribe…"

"But there are those who think only for themselves, who defy the will, and who wish ill upon us all. They are disgraces that must be taught to self-sacrifice with sacrifice, their defiant wills must be broken like the canes struck across their backs, and their rebellious fires must be snuffed out with unrelenting cold."

Touya sat still, his eyes shut, too scared to quickly glance up from the floor. All eyes and harsh frowns in the meetinghouse were on him. He could feel their cold severity piercing through his poor try at an impassive mask. Touya faintly quivered, hoping the shake was hardly noticeable in the low flickering light. In that moment, he felt half his short age and wished he had a blanket so he could pull it around himself and over his head and hide under it.

"And to know a disgrace, we must mark the disgrace. Is this the will of the tribe?" asked the chief.

"It is," responded the room in monotonous unison.

"Proceed with the marking," the chief ordered.

Though he was well accustomed to the marking ritual, Touya still hated every aspect of it. Not a moment of it was ever pleasant or Touya could find any relief within. And though he had been forced into participating in the marking ritual since he was a toddler, it still incited a deep fear inside him, no doubt fear that had its roots in his very first marking.

The two elders sitting behind him rose onto their knees. Well aware of the procedure, Touya put his arms behind his back and even so one elder grabbed his wrists and pulled them together while the other bound his hands with a thin thorny vine. Touya did not cry out as the thorns punctured and scratched his skin. They would punish him more if he had, as he had learned at his first marking, and Touya would not permit them the enjoyment.

"This strong black vine," said the chief, "is the will of the tribe for which you have disobeyed and have incurred the wrath. It shall bind your hands as the will binds you to the tribe. Its thorns shall prick and embed in your skin as a concrete lesson that you must too rejoin the tribe after much pain and misery. Any blood that is shed is the disgrace you must cast aside."

 _My blood is my disgrace_ , Touya thought. It was the first words to an old recitation drilled into him by his uncle. The entire passage stated that one amend Touya would have to make to reconcile and be accepted by the tribe would be to reject his blood, in other words, renounce his parents. Touya refused to then and would now if ordered. While the rest of the tribe saw them as disgraces, Touya believed they had done nothing wrong.

"The strain you suffer is the weight of your shame upon the tribe."

The next pair of elders less so much helped Touya to his knees and bowed him before his uncle than picked him up and shoved him into position. He was forced to remain bowed on his knees and with his hands tied behind his back for a very long time as two other elders ground the dry dye block and procured the necessary amount of fine powder.

"This dye is the stain of your disgrace. It will serve as your mark and will be renewed in the coming passage back to the village until the day you have renounced your vile, destructive ways, embraced the will of the tribe as your own, and at last rejoined us."

A bowl of the completed dye was set before Touya's uncle. He drew back his kimono's sleeves and produced an ink brush. Old scraps of white cloth were thickly bound around his hands, no doubt to prevent the disgrace's dye from staining them. His uncle took a hold of Touya's pale blue fringe speckled with faded bits of the mark and applied the fresh aqua green dye to the first pointed lock.

Touya tried his best to breathe quietly from his mouth. The dye stank horribly, and so would he for a few days until it at last evaporated from the dye. His uncle did not grasp his hair lightly, if the dye itself did not make his hair fall out, Touya had no doubt his uncle's pull would.

The marking itself was the longest part of the ritual. Touya's uncle very methodically took each lock of hair and brushed on the dye from root to tip, front to back, taking his time to ensure a proper marking and also because the longer he took, the longer Touya was forced to remain bowed and miserable.

His neck and shoulders were killing him by the time his uncle was finished. Not that it meant he could rise and relax. There still was a thirty-minute wait he had to endure bowed before he could move. There were two reasons why the wait was necessary. The first was a more practical reason: to allow the dye to set and dry. The second reason, and the one the elders were more concerned with, was the symbolic act of him bowing before them, his submitting to their authority, therefore the will of the tribe. Touya had no doubt his uncle took the bow to his authority personally.

This was the moment Touya was least comfortable with. The elders and the adults in attendance all went into a meditative silence, leaving and surrounding Touya in a heavy stillness where he felt anything could happen to him at a moment's notice. And here he was, amid the charge and swell, with his bleeding hands tied behind his back, his reflexes sore and slowed, bowed before the most dangerous and cruelest man in his tribe who also possessed a personal hatred toward him and his neck was unguarded.

It may have been a message the elders had not intended to make, but Touya was certain the symbolism was not lost on his uncle. In fact, it was probably the message he most wished to convey— _I hold your life._

Touya knew that already but every year, at every marking, the wait in silence reminded him of his uncle's true authority over him. That, at this moment and any other, he could kill him and he should be grateful that he had not yet taken his life when he possessed all the power and skill to do so.

 _Stay still. Do not bend. Prove to them that you are strong,_ he ordered himself. It had become a personal challenge of sorts for Touya to see if he could remain bowed in perfect place for the full thirty minutes. The previous year he had came so close to succeeding before he faltered. This year, he was determined to endure it unflinchingly.

The burn spread from his shoulders down his spine but Touya told himself that his back was strong, that he could make it. And this year he did, only once he had, none of the elders appeared impressed. Touya supposed he should have expected as much.

"The marking is complete," the chief said. "So be the will of the tribe."

"The will of the tribe is my own," everyone, including Touya, replied.

-o-

_There is no self, only the tribe. There is no self-will, only the will of the tribe. Every action, every thought, every breath is for the tribe._

Finally being granted freedom from Hyou's command and afternoon of torment, Touya was in his sectioned-off quarters in the servants' room changing from an indoor kimono to an outdoor kimono. He had intended on giving his mind a rest but his thoughts were taking no such relaxation.

 _Jin is right,_ Touya contemplated. _We are dead. How we live cannot be defined as 'living', therefore we must be dead. We have allowed ourselves to become what we feared most._

Touya's mind bent and swayed like a lone little sapling on a high hilltop caught in two blustery crosswinds. He had his uncle's voice berating him, spouting off bitterly the tenets of the tribe. Then there was Jin's voice talking about living, having fun, and enjoying life. And somewhere in all the words said and actions made was Touya. He wished he could clear his mind, or at least silence his uncle.

Touya knew of only one place he could go.

With no one else in the room and making a quick check of the street, Touya slipped off. The main street was bare, of people and of snow. A wet sheen coated the cobblestone and here and there, small remaining piles of slushy snow speckled the street. The air was warmer, warmer today than it had been yesterday, and especially for the early evening. The sky was gray but it did not appear that it would snow. In fact, aside from Touya's personal flurry, he had not seen any snow fall today. Peculiar.

At the first sign of anyone coming, Touya ducked into the alleyways. The thought crossed him that even if no one saw him, the awful smell of the dye would alert his tribe of his presence. The reek was so pungent and lingering he mostly likely left a trail of odor wherever he went. Convenient, Touya supposed, if anyone wished to find him. Not that anyone would intentionally want to find him quickly. Unless it was to punish him for something.

Clear of imminent danger, Touya hurried up the small hill and entered the forest. Little to no snow coated the forest floor or mounded in the bare gray trees, their bark more like stone, their branches like gnarled bone. Touya's steps made squishy noises on the wet ground. And yet, as somber as his surroundings appeared, he still felt the pulse in the earth, stronger than ever.

Touya padded through the woods, heading toward the spot in his memory. Along the way, the undercurrent of energy in the earth was with him, also urging him toward growth and change and movement. The pulse felt so much like Jin, like he was all around him smiling. Both Jin and the energy in the earth were such intense, positive forces that radiated good cheer and stirred so much warmth in Touya. And neither his uncle would have liked or approved of.

At last, Touya reached the blanket of snowdrops and swore there were even more today. Finding a large, wide rock amid the white flowers, Touya took a seat and drank in the tranquility. Perhaps this was not the least impartial place he could go to clear his head, what with all the connections to Jin here, but it was quiet and at least the memories he had here were good ones. Very good. Actually, probably the best he had.

Touya played out various conversations in his mind, some just between himself and either his uncle or Jin, and others with the three of them present, and one solely between Jin and his uncle. None of them ended well, not even the ones between himself and Jin. His uncle's voice spewed out more hateful rhetoric, some of it actually rational but most of it spoke of his ignorance. During his uncle's less sensible arguments, Touya focused on Jin.

By the end of his trial conversations, Touya really had only one of his concerns decided upon—his uncle could never find out about Jin.

Touya sat, admiring the field of snowdrops across the forest floor. When he and Jin had first found them yesterday, the flowers had looked to Touya like a bent-over woman crying. They had looked so small, frail, and weak. However, now seeing so many, even more than the day before, and knowing how cold and unforgiving the nights often were and seeing so few plants grow, much less thrive, in such harsh conditions, Touya could only see the snowdrops as a sign of hope, not sorrow. If they could survive, perhaps he could. Things could get better for him.

Or not, which was more likely the case. It was all he ever knew.

Touya tried to feel hopeful. It was not easy and for all his endeavor, all he had was an ember, but he still had hope. He remembered a torn scrap of parchment he had found in his uncle's private storage years ago. It was only one sentence from a larger note, long lost. Touya had always suspected it was from his father, since the handwriting did not match his uncle's or sounded like something he would have written.

The torn piece had read— _Hope is stronger than despair._

Touya had kept it and read it over and over, until one day Hyou had snatched it from him and he and his lackeys made him eat it stuffed inside a ball of rancid animal fat. It had been so long ago and replaced by other bad memories that Touya had forgotten about the note and its message. He had especially forgotten the message.

Touya tried to embolden himself by repeating his father's words in his mind and gazing at the snowdrops. So absorbed in committing the ideal to heart, he never noticed the sun and its last ray of golden light fall below the hillside and the first stars twinkle in the night. His only call back to awareness was the sound of footsteps breaking the silence.

On guard and wary, Touya swiftly surveyed about, first catching sight the light of the lantern burning through the dark and then part of a person in its amber glow.

"Toy? That's you, right?" asked Jin, much to his relief.

"Yes, Jin," he said as he pushed off from the rock and Jin hurried.

"Hoped it was ya. Really happy that it be ya, Toy, I am. Had a feelin' you'd be out here, I did," Jin paused in his eager rush and pinched his nose shut. "Uh, Toy? Don't mean ta be rude but the wind 'round ya smells. _Bad._ "

"Pardon it if you can," Touya said, embarrassed, as he stepped into Jin's light, revealing his aqua green bangs to Jin. "It is the dye. It marks a disgrace in my tribe."

"Disgrace?" Jin said, confused, as he set the lantern on the rock, reached forward, and rubbed a dyed lock between two fingers. The color did not come off. "Whatevah could ya have done ta get that, Toy?"

"I did nothing but be born. My parents were the ones who committed the shame," Touya said as Jin's check rub turned into Jin stroking Touya's fringe. It was a light, gentle touch that brought so much comfort, despite the gesture's simplicity.

"What did they do?" he heard Jin ask, as his touch lulled Touya's eyes closed.

"They loved one another," he said as the comfort and goodness struck his fear and his fear sobered him back to reality.

"You have to understand, Jin," Touya explained as he tottered backwards and out of Jin's touch, "that love, specifically impassioned love, is discouraged in my tribe. Our tribe is built upon control and restraint and order. Strong emotions, such as love or hate, are meant to be suppressed and denied for the benefit of the tribe. We are meant to be impassive, stoic, and impartial at all times."

If Jin felt anything about Touya's sudden withdrawal, he did not show it. "If that be the truth, how be there lil' ones runnin' around if none a' ya feel anythin' for one another?"

"Marriages are arranged between the betrotheds' parents and the elders, as are our pregnancies. Feelings have no place in such matters. All that is important is the tribe and will of the tribe." The fear in him subsided. Touya felt perfectly all right as long as he and Jin maintained this friendly distance.

"And what did ypur parents do? Feel somethin' for the other and had a kid without a bunch a' old geezers lettin' them?"

"Yes and no," Touya said. "There is much more to the story."

"Years ago, in the young adulthood of my parents, my tribe was different. My uncle had not yet assumed the position of Ice Master and forced his harsh influence over our chief, so our tribe was…less rigid. I suppose you could say we were allowed to live a bit more back then. Quite a lot more, from what I gather."

"My father, he was quite beloved in my tribe. His selflessness, generosity, and genius are still spoken of highly, albeit solemnly, to this day. I imagine that if my father had lived, if he had been allowed to advance his beliefs, my tribe would have been vastly different with his influence."

"Anyway, in my father's time, young men could court a girl's affections before he petitioned his parents to speak for their arrangement. My father had found such a young woman. Their match was suitable and their affections for one another endless and deep. It was well believed their marriage was inevitable."

"An' they didn't?"

Touya shook his head. "My uncle petitioned for her first, and since my uncle was the elder brother, my father could do nothing. Whether anything was done to persuade my uncle to break the arrangement is unknown, but the elders determined there was nothing wrong with their match so they were married."

"My uncle was jealous of my father. He believed that as the elder he was my father's better in all aspects, but my father always outshined him. He was more liked, better praised, and even though they were equal in skill and power and were both considered prodigies, my uncle believed my father would be chosen as the next Ice Master over him."

"He married her just to spite my father. She was what he cherished most and he stole her simply because he had the power to do so."

"Needless to say, my mother felt nothing for her husband and resented him. She upheld her duties as the lady of the house and bore my uncle a son, Hyou, but she always loved my father and he, her."

"They started meeting in secret. Anytime my uncle was away from the house at a council, presiding over a ritual, or instructing. Though even if he was home, retreated inside his reflection room, they would meet." Touya angled his head to the side and blushed, "…I do not believe they talked much."

"Even though it was against our laws and they knew the consequences if they were ever caught, they continued the affair. Most of my mother's servants and maids knew about it and helped her leave or sneak my father inside. Everyone, after all, believed they were inevitably supposed to be together."

"There was minimal worry until my mother became pregnant. Luckily, at the time, my uncle had petitioned to have a second child. It was simply seen as fortuitous that soon after the appeal was granted that she was pregnant. However, upon inspection by a midwife, she informed my mother she was a little more along for a recently expected, and from that, my mother knew the baby was not my uncle's."

"She maintained the pretense well though. Even those aware of the affair and the timing were convinced she carried my uncle's child. The only ones who definitively knew the truth were her and my father. Even when she gave birth two months early and I showed no ill effects, not one suspicion was raised."

"Our oldest maid told me that, as much as they loved each other, together they loved me more. While my mother never neglected Hyou of care and love when he needed it, I was her favorite. She spent every moment with me. My mother doted on me so, as did my father when he could be around. Between the pair, I never knew a shortage of pride and affection. Sadly, I was too young to remember any of it."

"Of course, our idyllic family life did not last. After my mother healed from childbirth, they resumed their passions and during one said occasion, a servant loyal to my uncle discovered them and reported it to my uncle."

"In favorable times, my uncle is a man to fear," Touya said grimly, "But when he is angry, there is no greater chill in the world."

"My uncle brought my father before the elders and he was publicly tried for his crimes. My father denied nothing. He even exposed the truth that I was his son. The elders deliberated but the law was clear on the matter. My father was sentenced to death."

"My uncle killed him right then and there. Our laws are harsh, yes, but my uncle's actions then even shocked my tribe. To so effortlessly kill your own brother without hesitation or sorrow… But that was and still is the law. No matter how ruthless my uncle's actions were, he was still in his legal right to do so. Horrific as his actions were, he had not committed a crime."

"My mother also died that night. My uncle claims she committed suicide. …No one believes she did."

"Wind ta guide, Toy," Jin said in awe, eyes wide and mouth open in surprise. "Be a wonder he left ya alive."

"I question that myself, Jin. Only reason I can think of is to hurt them. Keep me alive but dragged down close to the grave without ever letting me fall into it. After all, I cannot be made to suffer if I am dead."

"The alternative reason is that he was forced to. The elders had decided that since I was a baby to let me live but, as a product of my parents' crime, mark me as a disgrace. And until I prove to my tribe of my worthiness, that I am not a dishonor, I will remain a disgrace."

"You're not a disgrace, Toy. Farthest thing from it, ya are. You're the best one outta the older ones, I'd say. Ya got heart an' mind an' courage in spades, not like that cousin—wait… His mam an' your mam…" Jin thought aloud, marking the air with his index finger as he tried a figure out the connection. And then it hit him, "Ya mean that rotten lil' weasel of a cousin a' yours—"

"Is also my half-brother," Touya plainly said.

"Needs some serious lessons in bein' a big brother, he does," Jin grumbled as he took his hand and brought him over to sit with him on the large crease that formed a seat of sorts on the rock.

"I only pity the lil' ones who hafta listen ta your tribe's malarkey. Poor things gettin' their heads filled with shit before they've the chance ta figure anythin'..." Jin said. "I know that our tribes do things diff'rently an' there be nothin' wrong with bein' diff'rent but ya hafta admit there be somethin' seriously wrong about your tribe's ways. 'Least some a' the time."

Touya stared down at Jin's hand, still holding his. "I have expressed doubts of the ways of my tribe to Hyou. He merely scoffs at my thoughts and insinuates that I am somehow against the tribe. It is dangerous to criticize the will of the tribe."

"Lotta things be dangerous ta do in your tribe," Jin said in an offhanded tone.

Touya nodded.

Jin sighed and wrapped his arm around his shoulders, "Don't evah let it getcha down, Toy. A good person, ya are an' that be the truth." He slid closer, drawing Touya to rest his head on his shoulder.

"Thank you, Jin." Touya said, tilting his head downward to hide the pink on his cheeks.

Jin laid a hand on his cheek and guided Touya back to meet him eye to eye. The touch had no force to it and Touya had willingly rose. Jin smiled and stared into his eyes for the longest time before he said, "Ya got eyes bluer than the sky. Anyone evah tell ya that?"

Touya shook his head no.

"Well, ya do," Jin said. "Look like water with a barely frozen sheet a' ice floatin' on top. Underneath that bit a' ice, they look all warm."

"My eyes do differ from most. It is because of the nature of my parents' affair and the warmth they shared for one another. A proper union within my tribe will always yield firm, icy stares. Any sort of passion is believed to melt the ice and leaves a child with what are called watery eyes. …It is considered an offense to your child to let them have such eyes."

"'Course, it be…" Jin growled but quickly dispersed any anger with smiles, "Don't be sad, Toy. Nothin' bad about havin' those eyes a' yours. Look at me, Toy. Look."

Touya gave into Jin's persuasion and peered up at Jin. The lantern's amber light danced in the blue sky of Jin's eyes and, to Touya's surprise, the light in Jin's eyes was brighter than the lantern's glow. But the light played with Jin's features and wild red hair well and even cast a softness to him, a softness he knew Jin was capable of showing but rarely so often did, preferring to express his emotions through endless bursts of energy, passion, and cheer. It took several moments for Touya to realize that Jin's softness was not all just a play of light and shadow however.

Jin wrapped his arms about Touya in a loose hug and never once broke contact from his eyes. And then he said softly, "A thousand years could pass between us now an' I'd nevah not once get tired a' lookin' into your eyes. Prettiest I evah seen, they are. First thing about ya that drew me to ya an' they still stun me. I wish they stayed around me so I could see them anytime I wanted ta, for the rest of me life. Been wishin' a whole lotta things a' lately…"

"Been wishin' your tribe wasn't so 'fraid a' ev'rythin'. That your tribe wasn't leavin'. That your tribe would just be friends with mine an' maybe join with ours an' let us be one big happy tribe. That we could dance again an' go flyin' an' show ya the sky's colors an' the stars an' all the flowers when they bloom."

"I been wishin' your tribe wasn't so mean ta ya. That they stopped makin' ya feel bad about yourself. That ya stayed so I could show ya all the things I wanted ta an' more an' made sure ya had a lot more fun an' smiled an' laughed more an' so I could always have your eyes ta look at anytime I wished an' so I could hold ya close an'—an' much more, Toy."

" _Jin…_ " was all Touya could whisper in his awe.

"I guess what I be tryin' ta get at is this… I love ya, Toy."

Touya did not know what to think, much less to say. It was all too…confusing. His mind was thrown into a dizzying snowstorm. Jin loved him. Did he love him too? Touya was not certain. He tried to ask himself, delve into his many feelings for Jin but fear would wrench him away from any positive emotion. He did but did not. Touya knew it did not make much sense, a lot in his head wasn't making much sense, but it was how he felt at the moment.

Suppose he did love Jin, it would not work. He was leaving with his tribe soon. They would never see one another again. It would be pointless. It would only end in pain. And if his uncle was alerted of it, it would quite possibly end in death.

But as Jin pressed his lips to his, Touya was only thrown into a greater confusion. He tried to resist, raising his arms intending to push Jin away, but found his hands laying on Jin's shoulders, gripping his robes. Jin had his arms about him, keeping him close. His kiss was thorough and gentle, like a light breeze sweeping across his lips, full of love but holding back on his raw passion. Which was well enough for Touya, having trouble enough just with this soft kiss. A kiss from Jin as passionate as him would terrify him.

Touya was swamped in conflicting feelings. Jin's kiss stirred so many good feelings, but through his joy, Touya's fear clawed from its depths. The voice of his uncle as his consciousness was furious with him, damning him as a traitor and promising him he would suffer for his treachery if he did not push him away and run.

But Touya did not wish for Jin's kiss to end. He wanted to stay. He wished he could. His face was pink and flushed with warmth. His heart beat in fear and delight. There was still so much uncertainty in his mind but he did not want Jin's kiss to stop.

 _This could cost you your life_ , said his uncle's voice.

Touya was almost ready to toss all caution and let it be.

He was not sure if he or Jin was the one to initiate their parting but slowly Jin's lips and their softness and warmth lifted from his. Touya sat staring at Jin. His whole body was faintly trembling, from fear or Jin's kiss he could not be positive of which.

Jin drew Touya to rest on his chest and rubbed his back to help him settle down. "I know, I know," Jin whispered. "It's all sudden an' ya don't know. Things are all complicated an' don't ever seem ta get any bettah. No need ta tell ol' Jin right away. Be patient, I'll be. Swear I will. Just wanted ta tell ya how I felt 'bout ya. Say it again, I will. I love ya, Toy. I love ya."

Touya lay pressed against Jin's chest. He opened his mouth to speak but no words came out. _Say it_ , he ordered himself but nothing came.

He closed his eyes and lay in Jin's embrace, drawing in their warmth as he had before the other night after the party. As difficult and controlling as his life was, everything was so much simpler and carefree when he was with Jin. Unfortunately his world did not go away with one slip into Jin's arms. His warmth could not burn away all the cold of the Winter Tribe. And soon he would not have Jin to escape to.

 _Enjoy it while you still can_ , said his uncle's voice sardonically.

Not that it would, Touya wished his uncle's voice would shut up. He tried to toss it aside and focus on Jin but his uncle's voice was strong. It went away but it merely sat to the side, never really leaving and always ready to slide in to rebuke Touya at any time.

Jin's warmth and back rubbing nearly lulled Touya to sleep. He rose from Jin, his face red from being pressed against him. He rubbed an eye from drowsiness and then covered his hand over his mouth to stifle a quiet yawn.

"Sorry, I must have actually dozed off for a second."

"Ah, be all right with me, sleepyhead," Jin said through a partial laugh, as he brushed back the mark of the disgrace out of Touya's eyes. "Why don't ya come home with me? Take good care a' ya, I promise. Ya can have breakfast with all us in the mornin' an' there be plenty a' kisses in it for ya."

A vision of himself wrapped up in blankets falling asleep to Jin's kisses and massages was almost too tempting to resist but Touya knew he could not succumb to his imaginations.

"Thank you. It sounds wonderful," Touya said, wearing a sad smile, as Jin's grin beamed. "However, I could not be missing for that long a period of time. My uncle would search for me and no good would come of that."

Jin's grin fell. "But why, Toy? Don't give a damn 'bout your nasty uncle, I don't. He can go steppin' early in the mists for all I care. But why won't ya stay with me?"

Touya clasped Jin's hands together. "The risks do not outweigh the gifts. Splendid as they are. …I am sorry, Jin."

Jin wore an angry frown, all directed toward Touya's uncle, but his eyes were more sad and concerned. Jin sat staring into Touya's eyes, clearly trying to figure what to say that would convince him to go with him. But Touya would not be persuaded and Jin could see that. He dropped his head, gave a short nod in resignation, and put on a smile.

"S'okay, Toy. Wouldn't want ta getcha in trouble…" and Jin left it at that.

"Oh, he's already in a lot of trouble," Hyou said conceitedly.

Touya and Jin turned toward the sound of his voice but in the moonless night saw only his shadowy outline.

"I knew I would find you here," Hyou said, stepping just barely into the lantern's light to cast a flicker against his pale, pointed face and a glow into his gray eyes. "Even without your stink trail to follow."

Touya abruptly broke his clasp on Jin's hands and rose from his seat on the rock, "Hyou, what are you—"

"What am _I_  doing? What are _you_ doing?" Hyou narrowed his stare. "I warned you earlier but apparently you are only capable of listening to goop speech anymore."

Jin rose. At first, Touya thought he was going to slug Hyou again right then and there. But Jin stood, hands already into fists and his muscles tense. He scowled and shot Hyou a deep warning stare. One wrong word, that was all it would take.

Touya looked to Hyou with a plea in his eyes, "Please, do not—"

"Do what?" Hyou questioned haughtily. "You think you are of any position to order me, Touya?"

"Maybe he ain't," Jin said, his mouth contorting into a snarl. "But I'll drop your position if ya don't quit bullyin' Toy."

"You watch your mouth," Hyou glared at Jin and spoke as if he had just tasted a mouthful of bitter roots. "You have no idea who you are talking to."

"I know a piss-on when I see one," Jin said. "An' you're the one that should put an eye on your mouth. Last time I checked, you were one wailin' on the ground from a lil' tap a' me fist. Sure made your daddy proud then, didn'cha, arse-kisser."

A snap of disgust and rage crossed Hyou's face. "If my father were present—"

"Be a shame, he ain't. I'd love ta give him a matchin' shiner ta yours, I would. Too bad he's too scared a' ev'rythin'."

Hyou pulled back on his anger until he managed to put back on a cold mask. "He would slaughter you for your insolence. You and every last one of you filthy muck elves," Hyou said in an icy voice worthy of his father. "Touya! Come!"

" _Toy…_ " Jin said as Touya walked past and held out arms. It was a slight gesture but a powerful enough of one for Touya.

He could run into Jin's arms and Jin could fly him out of Hyou's reach. Sure, his cousin could sling ice daggers at them but Jin was faster. He would have Touya up and out before Hyou even swung back his arm in position.

But then Hyou would run to his father and lie. His father would summon the elders and lie. Jin and the Spring Tribe would be in danger. Touya doubted his tribe cared about his fate, but his uncle would lie from Hyou's lies and twist it so it seemed the Spring Tribe attacked Hyou and kidnapped one of theirs, most likely withholding it was their disgrace that had been taken. An assault would be mounted. Then, as the Spring Tribe defended themselves, it would become a war.

As strong and warm as he knew Jin's arms were, Touya could not run into them. He turned away and kept walking, burying his sadness and longing under an impassive mask, and followed behind Hyou through the dark woods.

-o-

Touya's uncle showed few emotions. Disapproval was one. Anger was another. His uncle often confused the two emotions for the same. But even at his most wrathful, he never raised his voice, to do so would be too undignified, but instead sharpened his anger into a sword of ice able to cut through the harshest snowstorm.

Touya sat bowed, his forehead to the floor, in his uncle's reflection room. His uncle sat across from him and watched him, his ire growing behind cold eyes. Touya trembled under his uncle's stare. He knew why he had been summoned this time. Hyou had not said anything and neither had his uncle yet, but he had no doubt. Only one thing could have made Hyou grin so smugly when he came for him and his uncle so furious.

The sharp winter wind was blowing as his uncle spoke, "Hyou has informed me of the reason for your disappearances of lately, nephew. And I am not pleased to hear of it."

His uncle gave him the permission to rise. He did not want the permission, he did not want to face his uncle, but he had been told to rise. And so, reluctantly, Touya rose. His eyes remained to the floor. He gripped his hands to keep them from noticeably shaking, at least less so than the rest of him.

"We have taught you to think of yourself as insignificant so you do so. We ignore your presence when you are in attendance, yes, but that has apparently led you to believe that we would fail to notice if you go missing," his uncle paused and briefly closed his eyes. "We do not, nephew. We are always aware of when you make a lengthy departure."

Touya always knew his tribe kept an eye on him from time to time but had no idea his tribe, or at least his uncle, regarded him as such a potential threat as to actually retain a close watch on him. Touya had always thought that no one would notice when he was gone, that he would not be missed, that no one would care if he disappeared, as long as he was not gone for too long. It had always seemed to him like his tribe would be relieved to have him gone.

"Hyou tells me you have been associating with the other tribe. You have been fraternizing with one savage in particular."

"J-Jin, sir," Touya said hesitantly. "He is my friend."

His uncle grimaced in disgust. "You have no friends. And certainly none from the other tribe. He is manipulating you and you have fallen for his persuasions. He only wishes to bring harm to our tribe and you will allow him."

"No, sir," Touya hurried to speak. "He does not. None of the Spring Tribe wishes to harm us."

" _Lies_. You are blinded by his lies. Can you not see the mark your so-called friend has left on your cousin?"

 _Hyou deserved it_ , Touya thought, unable to bring himself to say it.

"You are weak. You have succumbed to the other tribe's lies. You have placed our tribe in untold amounts of danger and done unspeakable damage to our way of life. You have proved what an ugly disgrace you really are." His uncle said, peering down at him at an all-new level of contempt and repugnance Touya had thought impossible. "Remove your robes."

Touya stared saucer-eyed in fear. "Uncle! Sir! Please!"

"Remove your robes," his uncle ordered a second time and this time, Touya obeyed.

His uncle's reflection room swelled with the force of his uncle's power. Touya heard the sharp crack of ice as it formed thickly along the spaces in the shoji screen doors, effectively sealing the room from entrance or escape.

Touya plead with his uncle, appealing to his uncle's reason for he knew he had no kindness to call upon, but his uncle would have none of his words. His uncle sat poised and controlled with his eyes shut as he rose his power, ruffling his kimono sleeves and wafting his long hair but doing so without disturbing its sleek, orderly appearance.

"I informed you once of what happens to snowflake unsheltered by kind, however it is apparent that you did not learn anything and must be shown. By all means, nephew," his uncle's scowl turned up into a rare dark smile, "I will show you what it means to be alone and unprotected in our world."

His uncle jettisoned his power into a swift frozen wind. The blast punched Touya in the stomach and knocked him to the icy floor. There he lay as his uncle's blizzard rushed over him. He did not rise or summon his energy to defend himself—to do so would mean greater hurt, slow and calculated and intentionally drawn out. It was simply better to endure. Touya covered his face and curled up his legs to his chest and prepared to wait it out.

The hardened snowflakes swarmed around him, taking with them bits of his skin. It was a lesser punishment and far better than hailstones, but it was nonetheless excruciating. Parts of his skin were being gradually scraped away. Every scratch sent a jolt of pain through his body. And the snowflakes were hardly the last of Touya's problems. His uncle had wrapped him in a ball of icy wind. It blew furiously, blasting snowflakes about him, and blustered in his ears, deafening him to any sound but the wind.

Though he would have some resistance at first, his body temperature was lowering fast. Even a master of the art of ice manipulation could succumb to hypothermia, and Touya, a mere apprentice, was no exception. Touya shivered and drew his naked body, save for a bit of underwear which was no save at all, in as close as possible to conserve every scrap of body heat.

Snow piled around him. If it was not for his uncle's presence on the other side of the room, Touya could have sworn he was left exposed to die outside during one of the nightly blizzards that stormed throughout his tribe's stay in the village. His uncle's intention, he supposed.

 _Why is he not killing me?_ Touya wondered. _By the laws of our tribe, I have done traitorous things. Why has my uncle not dragged me to the elders and petitioned for my execution? Why is he not killing me?_

And then Touya realized he had already answered his question earlier. _Because he does not wish me to die yet. I am of more use to him alive than dead. I am his scapegoat. I am his to be made to suffer. I cannot suffer if I am dead._

Touya lay, breathing heatless air onto his numb fingers. His skin was turning a faint blue. But he knew his uncle was not about to let him die. He would stop when he believed Touya had suffered enough. So Touya endured. And then bit into his lip to quiet his scream as a snowflake sliced across an already deeply-formed gash.

-o-

Jin lay awake in bed. No, Jin did not so much as lay in bed as perform tumbling acrobatics across his futon as he tried to fall asleep. But he just could not. Someone over on the Winter Tribe was outpouring a serious amount of energy again. It put a restless ache in Jin's bones and, as he lay twisting about, all he could think about was Touya. Jin didn't like having the two thoughts sitting side by side one another in his head. He didn't like the thought of the two having something to do with the other.

Jin kicked off his blankets and scowled at the ceiling. _I've got half a mind ta fly over there an' carry Toy off, I do._

But Jin stayed. Much as he thought it was a good idea, he figured Touya would not agree. And even if Jin tried to persuade him afterwards to stay, Touya would only go back to his tribe. They had some sort of hold over him—the twist in his wind Jin sensed—that Jin had no power to break from Touya by himself. He needed Touya's help to do that.

Because there were some things one could only accomplish together and there were other things one could only do by oneself. And If Touya was going to stay with Jin, he would have to make that decision.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Much appreciation for the guests that left kudos and for Minute for commenting.
> 
> Due to the final chapter reaching 20,000 words (essentially being as long as two chapters), I have halved the final chapter into two parts. I hope that is all right. I thought it would be better if readers didn't have such a massive chapter to read, plus it gives an early update. Bit of a warning that this half contains sexual content.
> 
> So, yes, here is part one. Part two coming soon. As always, thanks for reading.

Story Title: A Tale of Snowdrops

Disclaimer: If I had owned Jin and Touya, they would've been featured more in YYH. Clearly, I don't own them.

-o-

Day Four: In Which Goodbyes Are Said and Partings Must Be Made, Part 1

-o-

Touya winced yet again as he delicately smeared a balm into the cleaned gash on his left side. He ordered himself to stop showing his ache, reminded himself that every movement elicited pain or irritation from the gash anyway and that the others would know of his weakness if he allowed himself to show it. And the last thing Touya wanted was Hyou jabbing him repeatedly in search of his greatest wound.

The wound balm he was using was hardly the most potent but it was the best he could get his hands on while the medicine man was away. Rarely Touya had ever visited the medicine man for anything as he had always tended to his own injuries, aside from when he was a toddler and their oldest maid had mended him and subsequently taught him everything he knew.

The only time he had unequivocally needed the medicine man's help had been the time Hyou had burnt his feet. Touya remembered the stench of the burn creams well, along with the pain he felt without them. He also recalled being confused at the medicine man's recommendation he stay off his feet since he had never not worked before. His uncle had settled that confusion rather quickly—he had made him work on his hands and knees until he could walk again.

Wherever the medicine man kept the best salves and potions, it sure was not in his examination room. Touya had thoroughly searched his stores throughout the room and had only found the basic medicines every family kept and only a few that were a grade above that. Having heard voices approaching, Touya had pocketed the strongest balm and left.

It was neither the medicine he wanted nor the manner in which he wanted to receive it but since the medicine man had declared his gash was superficial at best and didn't require any treatment, stealing a jar had been his only option.

Touya grabbed the roll of bandages and unwound a length from the bone. He folded the strip, applied a bit more medicine onto the cloth, and laid it against the gash as padding and then wrapped his waist. After he was done, the pain was less striking but nonetheless present with every little movement and adjustment of his side. It would have to do, he supposed as he bound his obi securely and proceeded onward to his morning chores.

A thought crossed his mind as he stepped out a young maid's way in the hall. He wondered how Jin would have reacted to his wound. Rapidly, the thought became less so much an act of speculation than reciting obviousness. Jin would have been angry. He would have wanted to protect him. He would have gone after his uncle. He would have held him and kissed him and then left him to hunt his uncle down with all the blustery blizzard winds at his back because he loved him.

It became quite clear to Touya that Jin could never find out about his gash. He did not want Jin to fight his uncle. Jin was strong but could he match his uncle? Touya could not be certain. And besides, his uncle rarely actually fought anyone. He taught combat skills well but he was personally disinclined to them. No, he much preferred to torture.

Touya could not bring himself to speculate on Jin facing his uncle any further. He knew what agony his uncle was capable of inflicting, what his favorite techniques, body parts, and pressure points were. Jin would not have the same cruel mercy his uncle showed him. No, his uncle had no reason to keep Jin alive in the end, just as he had no reason to restrict himself in any way. There was so much more his uncle could do to Jin and he would gladly indulge himself because it would hurt Touya as well. No, wait, no, it wouldn't hurt him.

It would break him.

Before he entered his uncle's reflection room, Touya paused just outside and tried his best to restore his composure and mask and end the sudden tremble racking his body. That and settle his nerves before he lost what little he was allowed for breakfast.

He could no longer bear the thought of Jin suffering for him, for love at his uncle's whim. He could not let a battle between them come to pass. How ever he needed to prevent it, Touya could never allow Jin to face his uncle.

-o-

For once, Jin was not really all that hungry at breakfast. Sure, he stuffed eggs, deer meat, and whatever else within reach into his mouth but mostly just to not cause concern from his tribe and less so for any actual ravenous appetite. Really, he just wanted to get breakfast over and done with so he could go see Touya. Jin couldn't describe it better than that he had a feeling and he didn't like it and he wanted to see Touya real soon.

So when he saw that the rest of his tribe was busy stuffing their faces or chatting one another's pointy ears off, he rose from his seat and stepped out to no apparent immediate notice.

He thought he had made out completely unseen but as he reached the street corner, the meetinghouse door slid open and he heard Miyo calling for him. Not surprisingly, once he thought about it. If there was anyone who would have seen someone leave early and not eat enough, it would be Miyo.

"All right, tell me what's wrong an' don't give me no malarkey, boy," she said, her voice and gait equally firm as she marched toward him. "'Cause I know there's no ev'ryday reason ya be leavin' breakfast without lickin' ev'rybody's plate clean, Jin. Practically hafta paddle ya out a' the kitchen meself, I do. So what be it?"

"Not sure. Honest, ma'am, I am." Even if Jin had tried to lie, Miyo would have seen through him. Not that Jin was much of a liar in the first place. He had tried sometimes but his grin usually gave him away. "All I can say is that I hafta see Toy. Last night…well, didn't feel right. Woke up an' felt the same. Gonna go see him, I am ." Jin punctuated his words with a strong nod.

"All right, boy," she said, her whole demeanor softened with a smile. "Bring him over quick. Got him a plate aside an' it'll sure taste bettah warm than cold, it would. Dearie needs his breakfast too."

With another quick nod, Jin raised a hand in farewell and rushed off into the air. The temperature was a lot more comfortable to Jin than it ever had been, especially from the first day. Today was the first day that a second layer was a fellow's choice and not a need. And the wind had certainly become friendlier to his tribe and had lost most of the nasty bitterness it had been carrying. Only place the air remained harsh was on the Winter Tribe's side.

As he drew near the border between their tribes, Jin landed and hid himself in the alleyways and between-ways as he listened and peeked about for Touya. He still wasn't sure which house might have been Touya's and he couldn't make a decent search without someone from Touya's tribe finding him. The streets were for once busy with pale men and women and children carrying chests, baskets, and various possessions and supplies out from their homes to carts placed elsewhere to his guess.

 _Always be havin' ta do things the hard way,_ Jin thought as he wondered why they didn't place their carts nearer so they didn't need to do so much carrying and lifting. It seemed pretty logical to Jin. Then again, the easy way probably wasn't allowed if someone had happened to mention it.

Jin didn't know everything about Touya's tribe but he knew enough that pretty much no one was allowed to do anything and much of their ways made no sense to him. That and that he would have made a very bad Winter boy. Only good part of the thought was knowing that if he had been born in the Winter Tribe, Touya would have always had him as a friend.

Yet again Jin thought he had seen Touya and yet again it only wound up being another boy (and once a girl) who shared a slight resemblance and Jin was so eager to find him that he saw him in everyone. Didn't help that the Winter Tribe did all seem to look alike from behind, not like his tribe probably all looked the same to Touya from behind.

Despite all the awfulness behind the dye, Jin was a bit thankful that he could notice Touya for his bangs. When he did see him, that is. As it was, the stink of the dye was still in the air, both helping him in his search and keeping him angry at the people of the Winter Tribe that were not Touya or their little ones.

He was quiet and careful with his steps and he didn't call for Touya and so far kept himself out of view of anyone. He guessed he was also lucky that the Winter Tribe were so busy that they didn't happen to notice him from the side darting in the back streets. Luck often seemed to be Jin's blessing.

And whether it was luck or having the rest of his tribe pass by him, Jin finally caught sight of an aqua green splash among the many blues, whites, and dead-vine browns. As he started to call him, he swiftly remembered he was in hiding and covered his mouth before the Winter men moving past could also hear him.

Following him in wait of a safe chance to speak, Jin scurried in between houses and alleys and watched him at every opening. Jin wished he could talk to him now or at least let him know he was there, just so Touya would smile. Even if it would be ever so slightly.

As it was, Touya walked with his head to the ground, his eyes hooded, and shoulders stooped. Jin wasn't sure if it was just the angle making the natural shine of his eyes more prominent or if there were tears in his eyes. Either way Jin wanted to kiss him. And if there were tears in his eyes, he wanted to kiss him until they fell in laughter.

Amidst the cutting air, Touya walked in silence. Never once did he raise his head to greet a fellow tribe member and not one spoke to him—a stark contrast to his tribe's ways where sometimes it was hard to get somewhere for everybody wanting to say hello and jabber.

No, all of Touya's tribe ignored him. And if anyone walked slightly too close, Touya sidestepped around them with a slight bow in apology for invading their space, even if it wasn't his gesture to make. Even though Jin had come to a guess already, seeing him among his tribe only confirmed his thoughts—Touya was used to being at fault. For everything. And no one ever seemed to let him be anything but. It was second nature to him to be constantly wrong.

Sure for the moment that no one was coming and passersby were far enough from earshot, Jin called Touya. At the third strong whisper, he finally found him and, sure enough, he was surprised to see him. Grinning from ear to ear, Jin waved his hands in a beckoning manner, certain that if Touya rushed to him they could be all the way back to his tribe's side long before anyone noticed he had vanished. Jin just barely managed to keep himself from bouncing in place as he waited for Touya to come with him.

But Touya just stood and stared wide-eyed back at him. He wasn't moving toward him. He wasn't even happy to see him. If anything, Jin being there alarmed him.

Jin's grand grin quickly fell. _Come with me_ , he mouthed.

Touya gave a tense, swift headshake no. And then Jin saw him take a short step back and, before Jin could respond, Touya ran into the house, closing the shoji with a sharp, sudden clack.

Jin couldn't understand why. He stood with his eyes wide and mouth open in shock. His failed plans confused and crushed him. He hadn't thought Touya would have not wanted to come. Jin knew he was afraid of his tribe seeing him with him but he didn't have to be afraid. There was no one in the village he would dare let hurt Touya.

Even for all his reservations, Touya was acting strange. He had never ran from him before. He had always spoken to him, even if it was just to scold him on showing up to get him. This new fear…Jin didn't like it. It wasn't right. It wasn't Touya.

When he was sure Touya wasn't going to come back out, Jin headed back home. For a moment, he considered flying off from the alleyway but that might have brought too much alarm to the Winter Tribe so he hurried back to his side of the village before taking off. He was going to need a good, long flight anyway to sort some things and to keep himself from listening to the little voice that kept telling him to go do things he wanted to do but knew Touya wouldn't have wanted him to. Like find that uncle of his.

Because last night didn't feel right and today, Touya was different. And the more Jin thought about it and was convinced something had happened last night to Touya, the more Jin wanted to plow through the Winter streets and shake the neck of every adult that let him get hurt. Much as he had been called stupid in anger or jest before, Jin wasn't stupid. He could see when one thing led to another. He may not have had proof but he had a feeling and never before had Jin's feelings let him down.

Jin stalled the gusts carrying him aloft and turned around to face the village, now little more than rooftops in the distance. He floated mid-air with the forest at his feet and behind him the white mist that no wind could part rolled in between the trees.

He tried not to think about it much the last couple of days but just this once he reminded himself that Touya would be leaving soon. He tried to give himself some hope that maybe next year they would meet again but he knew it wouldn't happen. The chance meet of their tribes had been a miracle and miracles did not repeat themselves. This was their first and last.

 _Wish it be our first an' forever_ , Jin stared down into the forest, into a small clearing of snowdrops. _Don't know why Toy won't stay. He's not happy there. 'Course, he's probably never known happy before._

And Jin wanted to make Touya happy. Would have given him anything in the world to make it so, even if that one thing was to let him go with his tribe but he knew that would never be true since no one seemed happy in the Winter Tribe. But for some reason, Touya didn't want to leave them. Much that it pained him to realize, Jin knew that even if his plans had gone through that Touya would have still said no to staying with him.

_Y'know, probably he'd hate me for a while 'til he saw it was for his own good, he would, but before the day's end, I could snatch him an' keep him 'til the part in the mist closed…_

No, kidnapping him wouldn't help them. Touya wouldn't understand he was doing it to save him. For a while, he would resent him and Jin didn't want Touya angry at him. That and it would be against Touya's will to take him and Jin didn't want that either. Touya had enough people telling him what to do and making him do things he didn't want to and Jin sure didn't want to be another. If Touya was going to stay, he would stay.

Jin looked up into the big blue, partially for the comfort and hope it brought him.

_Toy's not stupid. His wind's just twisted an' makin' him think funny an' tellin' him wrong things but he'll see, I know he will. He knows how bad his tribe be, how wrong they be an' he'll see how happy he'll be living with me an' all us an' he'll want ta stay. He will, I know it._

_…I hope he will._

-o-

The last of the day's gray light casting his murky shadow against his blanket, Touya sat in his partitioned corner of the servants' quarters. Laying on his back to give the gash on his side as little irritation as possible, Touya sat and thought.

The other servants—and Touya realized his error in lumping himself with the servants, as he was much lower than them—were occupied, as was the rest of his tribe, in packing and preparing for their departure into the mists tomorrow. Touya was alone, with nothing but his faint breaths and the occasional sound of his body disturbing the blanket beneath him.

By the judgment of his tribe, he was being idle, but his uncle's servants had made it clear, less so much with words but with glares, that they would do everything and, when he had tried to work elsewhere, others had taken his load from him. So it seemed to him that the will of the tribe was that they did not want his help. So, wondering if he would be punished for not working, Touya had went to his corner to think and wait.

Tomorrow, as soon as the bedding was packed, they would leave. The truth and finality of tomorrow lingered in his mind as open and constant as the reek of the dye marked his steps. They would leave and that would be the end of their time in the village. It would be the end of seeing Jin.

Touya wanted to feel anger and frustration at Jin. He wanted to call him an idiot and point out the many times he had warned Jin about his tribe, about how he couldn't be seen with him, how _he_ couldn't be seen with _him_ , and yet he repeatedly dared to show himself.

Especially today, the day of all days someone could have caught him and yet by grateful blessing did not. And not just the one instance but the several instances he had appeared and tried to talk to him. Touya wanted to summon the anger to tell him how stupid, impatient, reckless, blind to the consequences of his actions he was…

Touya could not summon the anger. He could not even bring himself to feel the slightest bit irritated at Jin for what he did. Yes, he was hasty but he meant well. For reasons he didn't see or understand, he loved Touya. Only reason he kept showing up was to spend time with him. Time they had so little left together.

Laying in the waning light, his eyes half-closed, Touya realized how tired he was. Not just physically but tired of many things. His mind was exhausted from the near-constant pull between his uncle's teachings, his fear, Jin's love and his tribe's value of living. He imagined his bed as a sheet of thin ice, cracking and sinking his body into the freezing depths, drawing the arguing influences into an everlasting final silence at last.

But cutting through the cold water came waves of warmth. They wrapped about him and stalled his descent into the blackest deep. Touya heard Jin say, "This no bed for ya, sleepyhead. Much too cold."

Touya awoke slowly, fighting through the mental haze to the realization he was not drowning underwater but was in fact still alive in his bed. He heard the whistling snores from one of the servants and then became aware that the last of the gray daylight was gone and it was night. He had apparently gone from a wistful imagination into a dream.

 _A dream…_ he thought again as he sat up in the dark. He gently rubbed his arms to stave off the rare chill bothering him.

He knew he should be trying to go back to sleep, that if he just slipped beneath his blanket that the cold would eventually disappear and he could get some rest before he had to get up, put his clothes chest and bedding on the cart, and work where he could before his tribe set off. But Touya could not make himself go back to bed.

He remained sitting up, listening to the servants' snores punctuating the silence. He was the only one awake and, despite the many people sleeping a mere two feet away, he felt alone. Nothing more than the same, he supposed. He always felt alone, no matter the crowds around him. Except when he was with Jin.

_Jin…_

He realized he could not let their sparse meetings and him running away each time be their last memories. It knew it was the right and proper course to see him one last time, if only to say goodbye. Because if he did not, Jin would try to meet him as his tribe moved on into the mists. And if there was any moment, his tribe would catch him with Jin, it would be then.

A swift crawl over to the clothes chest, Touya carefully removed the battered lid and set it on the floor with little sound. Then with the slightest rustling that easily could have been interpreted as him turning in his sleep, he changed from one kimono into the other. He stood for a moment, perfectly still, to allow any potential ears time to grow discouraged and fall back asleep and also to embolden himself into carrying out his plan. He knew there was a possibility his uncle was watching him, that he might be putting Jin in his uncle's harm's way.

But he had to say goodbye, a proper goodbye so Jin would stop trying to see him and to keep him safe. So Touya slipped out. The evening was cool but nowhere near the freezing temperatures he knew. There was no snow to crunch through in the street. Touya passed through the between ways a pale shadow and wondered if someone had noticed or was watching him leave. Touya tried not to think about it and hoped he was alone and that this was not a mistake.

Even though his uncle's voice was telling him how stupid, disgraceful, selfish, and costly to his life this was, Touya crossed the self-imposed border between their tribes.

_If this is a selfish act, I do believe it would be my first. First and last._

-o-

In his room, Jin waited but not at all in a patient manner. He paced and when he grew tired of that, he sat and rocked until he fell over where he flailed about as he waited for the night to grow dark and deep so he could go see Touya and try to talk to him one last time.

Jin huffed impatiently and kicked the air in frustration. He wished it would get late already. He wished he could see Touya and wished Touya wouldn't run away from him like the last seven, give or take, times he had tried meeting with him today.

Sure, Touya didn't want his tribe seeing them together, he understood that, but he could have tried to make plans to meet where it was safe but instead he had ran away like a frightened fawn. Something had happened and whatever had happened to him last night had made him afraid to even talk with him.

It was several moments and many bats from his fluttering blanket for Jin to realize his anger had channeled itself into a wind. It was another near minute before he could dispel the wind entirely.

He had talked with the Winter kids earlier in the afternoon as they played with the Spring children in secret. The kids had thought it was strange too that Touya would not come play with them but they understood he had lots of work to do. The kids said they wanted to play more with their new big brother but knew they wouldn't get to often because the adults made sure Touya was always busy.

Jin had also asked about the river of energy last night and at first the kids said nothing, merely looked terrified at one another, before a boy managed to squeak out that it was the Ice Master.

A snarl on his face, Jin laid on his bed and struggled to rein in his energy from bursting into another breeze. He didn't like the situation before and he certainly didn't like it now that he knew the energy was Touya's uncle's.

_If the bastard hurt him—_

The wind howled and rattled the shoji frames.

Jin had to be careful. He had to calm down. Because if he didn't, his wind would rip apart his room, the roof, and who knows how much of the house and their neighbors' and blow the splintered wreckage clear into the mists. He was angry, yes, but he could not let his feelings take total control of his wind. That was first lesson stuff, first and fundamental.

 _Not the time ta let your wind howl an' anger burn. Not here, not now. Wait for it,_ he told himself. _Touya's more important than fanning flames. Gotta see him before anythin' else. Nothing matters more than Toy._

The howl became a dull hum.

_Nothing matters more than Toy._

Jin laid still, very much angry but he refused to let his rage channel through his wind. There would be a time and a place to let the two merge but now wasn't it. For now, he set aside his anger. For now, Touya was the focus of his world. When ready, able, and with a quick kick of his legs, Jin sprung onto his feet. Maybe it was late enough and maybe it wasn't, either way it was time for him to go find Touya.

With a rapid change of clothes, Jin was ready and eager to hurry out. Though as he slid open the shoji screen, he was much surprised to see Touya already there, equally surprised and with his hand paused in mid-knock.

Without a second thought, Jin hugged him. "Ah, Toy, ya have no idea how happy I am ta see ya."

He was real, right? Jin wasn't just having a dream or smacked his head real good again, did he? Didn't seem so. Didn't _feel_ so. Jin swept his hand up his back, neck, and through his hair and it all felt real and true. It was Touya, making quick wary looks around him. Nothing could fake those eyes.

Jin was sure he had invited him in. He was also sure Touya had not walked inside but that Jin had carried him. In his joy, his memory went a little fuzzy. Here he was with Touya in his arms kneeling down to his futon—huh, he guessed he had carried him after all.

"Come over here then. Use ol' Jin like a pillow, 'kay?" he said, as he drew Touya close. "Ah so here we go." Jin pulled his blanket around and over Touya. "Now nobody but me knows where ya are. All hidden now. Comfy too, yeah?"

"…Yea," Touya murmured.

Jin was at a loss for words of how to describe how wonderful this was. He was just so happy to have Touya near, to be able to hold him, feel the rhythm of his breaths and the weight of his body against him. And then seeing those eyes he loved…

If anything, this was perfect.

Touya was quiet and more than usual. He lay, cheek against his chest, and bore a heavy stare into the folds of the blanket and Jin's robes. He seemed so overwhelmed in thought Jin wondered if he would notice if he brushed a finger along the line of his jaw. Jin decided to do just that and see.

Midway, Touya became aware, gave a subtle jump in surprise, and then, eyes cheerless and sorrowed, peered up at Jin.

"Hi, Toy," Jin said softly and smiled.

"Hello, Jin," Touya said listlessly as he raised a hand and gripped Jin's robe. "…When I leave—"

Jin blinked. "You're goin'?"

"Yes…" Touya said, eyes and voice full of doubt, "…Or I think so. My tribe is leaving. I have to leave."

Jin shook his head. "Nah, there's no hafta, Toy. Ya got the choice an' it's only yours ta make. No one else, not even I, much I honestly wish I could, Toy. Can't number the times I've thought about snatchin' ya away today, I have."

"They are my people, my tribe, all I have ever known…" Touya said. "My family."

"Family is family an' I understand that. There'll be no hard feelin's if ya go, but miss ya sorely, I will." And Jin didn't know if that ache would ever leave him. No, it wouldn't, he realized. Not even for a second. " …Aye, that be true," he added softly.

Jin wrapped his arms a little closer around Touya and kissed his forehead.

"But we can be your family, y'know. An' if no one else, ya got me, Toy. I'll take care a' ya, make sure you're happy an' never ever be mean ta ya. I promise. Things'll be good for ya, now an' forever if ya stay, make sure a' that meself, I will."

He could feel Touya trembling in his arms.

"I understand, Toy. Been so long in the dark, the light seems too bright," Jin whispered into his ear. "But ya don't hafta be 'fraid. Not a' the light. It'll show ya the way, open the big blue open ta ya, an' keep ya warm an' safe, even at night. I swear it will. Even at night."

"Just don't be 'fraid," Jin's voice caught and he quickly buried his face into the bend of Touya's neck and shoulder to hold back the tears misting his eyes. Jin wasn't certain if his body was shaking too or if he was caught in Touya's tremble.

All Jin knew was that he didn't want to lose him. He didn't want him to go. Nothing would get better for him if he went. Jin knew that. Touya knew that. Jin didn't see what was keeping him from staying. Fear, he guessed. Fear and the loss of everything he knew, his identity, what shreds of family he had left. Touya was used to being given so little he wanted to hold onto and fight for the tiny scraps he had.

But Jin could give him so much more.

Jin kissed his jaw and then his cheek. He slipped his fingers through the downy hairs on the nape of his neck and then thumbed the curve of his ear.

"What are you doing?" Touya asked, his voice quivering.

"Trust me," Jin said with a swift half-grin as he pressed his lips onto Touya's.

There was the softness, the tenderness of heart that was at Touya's soul, in his lips but also the hesitation that held him so often in fear. Jin was determined to draw him away from that fear, to show him things could be different, things could be good. Bit by bit, Jin eased Touya's lips from their pursed restraint with light nibbles and sucks. He slid his hands up and along his back in broad strokes, equally comforting for the both of them.

Jin felt the faint suggestion of his body underneath the thick, thick layers of kimono. Always been more occupied with his eyes or in just having fun together, Jin had never really thought about Touya naked. Well, once or twice but just as a fleeting-in-the-moment wonder. He loved Touya. He was curious about everything about him, including what he looked like undressed and whether his body was as striking and lovely as his eyes.

He had held him before, yes, but he had never touched him. He had never seen him, felt him, nuzzled him—there was so much left of him to kiss and adore. But this night was it, all they had left between them. Perhaps he couldn't show him a sunrise aloft but tonight he would show him love. Maybe it would be enough to stave off his fear.

He traced his tongue along his bottom lip and then tested Touya's reaction with a quick, small slip between his lips. At first, Touya drew away in confusion but, with whispered comforts, returned to kissing. One hand cradling his head as Jin angled in for a deeper kiss, the other dipped down his back and worked their way into Touya's knot. Tongues locked in a tentative tango, Jin shimmied his fingers about the tied sash and gradually loosened his obi. He left it there and did not remove it.

Jin pulled away and smiled at the pink on Touya's cheeks. "Ah, found somethin' sweeter than honey, I have," he said, laughing through his grin, as Touya smiled shyly and bowed his head to hide his blush.

Running a finger lightly along the fold of his kimono, Jin took hold of it and slowly pulled it away. Immediately, mouth open in a silent gasp, Touya grabbed his kimono and held it back across his body.

His initial surprise melted into understanding. Jin took his wrist and raised Touya's hand to his lips. Touya stared at him with a mutual mix of confusion and fear as he clutched tightly onto his kimono. If there was anything in this world Touya didn't have to be afraid of, it was him. Or, at least, that was what Jin hoped Touya was piecing together, as he rubbed small, reassuring circles on his hand. New kisses and touches seemed to throw Touya and oddly seemed to make him react like Jin was suddenly out of the big blue going to hurt him. Jin guessed he shouldn't take it personally—after all, Touya was far more used to people hurting him than hugging him.

Jin saw and felt Touya's grip loosen slowly. Circle by circle, the tension in his hand fell away. With care, Jin held Touya's wrist and pulled it to the side. This time, Touya did not resist. The kimono in his hand slid away in suit, exposing his pale skin. Against the dark blue kimono, his skin seemed all the more white, so much so his skin seemed to radiate a gentle glow.

"Beautiful…" Jin whispered as he slipped a hand beneath Touya's kimono and tossed aside the other side from his shoulders.

His skin was cool to the touch, cool and smooth, and felt so bracing against his warm cheek. He couldn't touch him enough. He wished he could toss his own kimono off and hug their bare bodies together but Touya wasn't quite ready for that. There were many things Jin wished to do, wished to feel with Touya but Jin's passions would have to wait to burn at their brightest.

Jin weaved a string of light kisses all around his neck. He nipped lightly at his throat, all the while gliding his hands up his sides, feeling Touya's slender body stretch and move as he arched his back at the sweeping caress.

"Beautiful," he whispered again, "Do ya know ya are?" Jin took his silence to mean no. "Ya are. Not a sunrise, sunset, field a' flowers, lad 'er lass, not a thin' 'er soul can compare ta ya, Toy. Don't ever need ta see the big blue evah again. Got it right here, I do. In your eyes."

Jin could tell from his silence that Touya didn't think he was beautiful. He could tell he was uncomfortable with him saying so and desperately wanted to say he wasn't but didn't, only because he knew Jin would only tell him he was beautiful over and over and that he would never see things his way. Because, whether Touya saw it or not, he was beautiful.

It was a shame he couldn't see how beautiful he really was. Eyes bluer than the sky, skin as soft and pale as new snow, blush pink nipples, a small, slim body—how could he not see he was beautiful? And if he couldn't see himself in the way Jin saw him, what did he see?

 _Whatever he sees, I don't want ta know,_ Jin thought as he briefly considered asking. _Doesn't matter, 'cause it won't be good. I'll show him, though. Make him feel so good, he'll finally see himself how I see him. Only thin' I know ta do but worth a try, it be. Couldn't hurt. Won't hurt. Never hurt Toy, I wouldn't._

Jin smiled as he admired Touya, blushing and looking about uneasily in response to Jin's plentiful affections. He still seemed to be fighting with himself on whether he was supposed to be enjoying Jin's touches or whether or not to push him away and run. Jin didn't know if he was helping or hurting matters by touching him so much. He couldn't help himself though. His hands sought his skin, the sensation of his cool flesh on his warm palms. He couldn't go without it.

And then his fingers, sliding beneath the crumpled kimono dangling around his waist, ran across the obvious feel of bandages. Shock and concern bolted across his face as he quickly tossed off the rest of Touya's kimono before Touya could push his hands away.

The bandage was not thin, as Jin had hoped, but thick. The wrapping was not sparse but generous. There was padding on his left side. Reluctantly, though he had to know, Jin pressed onto the padding.

A spark of pain broke through Touya's tight mask.

He could now see the other small cuts, nicks, and scrapes, here, there, everywhere concealed by play of shadow or by sheer fineness of the slice. He had thought little of the broken skin as he had kissed his shoulder but now he saw all the other rough lines of broken flesh. Touya was hurt. They had done this. His uncle had done this. Last night.

"Should've came for ya," Jin said softly, mouth staying open as his eyes flitted from mark to mark.

"No, Jin, you should not have. There was nothing you could have done that would have made things better."

"I should've came," he repeated. "An' carried ya away last night."

There was fear and concern in Touya's eyes. He thought Jin was going to go after his uncle. He thought he was angry. Of course, he was angry. There was nothing Jin wanted more than to beat Touya's uncle ten shades past black and blue but at this very moment Touya didn't need that most. Touya knew enough anger. What he needed most now was love.

Whatever sort of shock and rage was showing, Jin put it aside and smiled. Then he held Touya close and pressed his lips to his.

-o-

"Beautiful," Jin whispered as their mouths parted.

 _I am not beautiful,_ Touya thought. _I am marked. I am a disgrace. There is nothing beautiful about me._

_Jin thinks I am beautiful._

"Nothin' ta worry about, Toy," Jin said as he brushed back his aqua-green fringe, the light touch lulling his eyes to close in the familiar comfort. "Goin' nowhere, I am. Stayin' right here with ya, promise I will."

Wait, what? He was not leaving. He was not rushing off to find his uncle. When he had found the bandages and saw the cuts, Touya had feared the worst. Jin reacted, not reflected. Slights to himself he occasionally ignored but threats to the ones he loved sent his wind into immediate storms. Hyou's snotty remarks were enough to stir Jin's wind so, at the sight of his wounds, he had expected a tornado to level the village in his rampage after his uncle.

But Jin was not rushing off. Despite his anger, he was staying. He cared more about him than getting revenge on his wounds. Jin was not going to let their last moments together be marred by rage and hate.

"Thank you," Touya whispered as he fell into his arms, into their familiar safety and welcome.

Jin's body was as warm as sunlight. It seemed so strange to Touya to think so, never knowing until recently that the sun gave light and heat. But now since learning of the sun's fire and feeling it for himself, he felt he could confidently say Jin's body was just as warm. And he wanted to feel more. If it were possible, he wanted to curl up and lay completely enveloped in Jin's warmth.

His fear spoke to him in his uncle's voice. It told him he was foolish, shameful, to keep away from Jin, to bury his curiosities and feelings under ice like he was supposed to, that heat melted ice. His fear reminded him in a voice between his uncle's and the chief's that only unrelenting cold would smother a rebellious fire. They told him he should not be having these thoughts.

Touya felt the warmth of Jin's breath near his neck.

_We are meant to be impartial, impassive at all times. We are supposed to suppress all strong emotion. We do not feel anything, anything but what my uncle wishes our tribe to feel. We know fear, humility, and submission._

_But I have felt more than that._

Jin slipped out of his kimono and tossed it aside.

Touya knew he was strong—he had seen him arm-wrestle that brute with ease and he had felt vague impressions of his body before but he had never seen him disrobed before. Touya did not know how to properly react but to stare at his chest and arms. Jin was not grotesque and bulky like the brute but his body was solid and muscular. And warm. Touya wondered if it was possible for a body to give off this much raw heat. Intimate contact was rare, even discouraged, except in the case of permitted procreation, in his tribe. It was not as if Touya had so much of a hug to compare his heat to.

At the press of their bodies, Jin's warm and Touya's cool, a tingling rush swept over Touya's body as his body responded to the heat. He supposed it did not matter as he tilted his head back and opened his mouth in a silent gasp as Jin's tongue swirled down his neck. All that mattered right now was how good everything felt, how the littlest gestures could bring so much happiness out of him.

And the littlest things made Touya very happy.

With what strength his body could muster, Touya hooked an arm behind Jin's neck before he gave way under Jin's oral attentions. His heart pounded, as if he had been dancing. Heat pinked his cheeks. Fear wrestled with pleasure as his body and mind tried to sort out which he was supposed to feel more.

"Damn me, those eyes are beautiful," Jin said, grinning. "Though not like the rest a' ya ain't bad ta look at, Toy." He laid a kiss on his forehead in the usual spot Hyou liked to poke him and at the touch, Touya could not help but wince a little.

Touya peered back at Jin in wonder. He was the first person who had ever told him his eyes were beautiful. To his tribe, his watery eyes were wrong. Ugly. Proof of his parents' disgrace. Proof of his unworthiness. But Jin thought they were beautiful. He thought he was beautiful.

_With Jin, I have felt happiness._

Jin swept a hand up his side and kissed his collarbone.

_I have felt comfort. I have felt acceptance._

Jin quickly nuzzled the crook of his neck and shoulder and whispered a few more kind words. Jin's scent hit and engulfed him like the rush of a sudden breeze. A strange reckless urge rose in Touya.

_I have felt…_

His fingers brushed around his nipples in slow half-circles. Immediately, the soft pink flesh stirred from its sleep. Touya watched, uncertain. His body trembled, though for once not in fear. Oh, his fear was still present, a shade in the back of his mind, but his thoughts and body were wholly occupied in the pleasure of Jin's hands.

_I have felt warmth._

He arched his back, raised his chest, as Jin's fingertips rubbed his nipples into tiny, tight beads, no bigger than snowflakes. A high gasp managed to escape his lips.

Touya could feel Jin smiling. It would take nothing to recall his laughter. His smile and laughter were, after all, bright, bold and cheery. They were at the core of his being. Jin was boundless, open, playful and bright. Sunlight in male form with the capricious wind at his soul. Only part of him that stayed constant was his loyalty and love, both he showed with equal, honest, fervent passion.

_I have felt love._

"Ah, Toy," Jin said, words punctuated with pauses for kisses. "Can't stand it any longer. Let me make love with ya. I want ta. Please, Toy."

Touya did not know how to say no, so he nodded yes. In truth, his mind was too fuzzy and preoccupied to really contemplate what Jin was asking. He did not really know what he had agreed to. But he was with Jin so whatever it was, it would not be bad, he figured. No doubt it would probably feel good. Real good. Everything else had.

He felt Jin's hand slide down the bend of his back. At first he enjoyed the sensation until his hand slipped underneath his underwear.

"What are you doing?" Touya asked nervously, making an awkward startled jump up as he struggled to peer over his shoulder to get a good watch on Jin's wandering hands.

"Could say I'm coppin' a feel, I guess. Got a nice backside, ya do, love," Jin said, grinning, as he gently rubbed a cheek.

"I do not," he quickly denied, blush deepening.

"Yeah, ya do. Got a nice everythin', Toy. Love it all about ya, I do. Want ta have it all with ya. Wish ya'd stay so I could _really_ have it all with ya but if ya go, ya go. 'Least before ya do, let me make love with ya. First, only, an' last."

Touya stared bewildered back at Jin. He could not understand why he would want to make love with him until a thought managed to click itself together.

"You find me desirable?" Touya asked, confused by the thought of it.

"I think me findin' ya 'desirable' be the kiddy way a' puttin' it, love. I'm one-hundred-all from the top a' me tallest hair ta the end a' me toes would walk straight into the mists wild in love with ya. Told ya I love ya before, Toy. Didn't ya hear me even once? We gotta wash the wax outta yer ears!" Jin said, laughing as he gave his ears a playful tug.

"I am desirable?"

"'Course ya are, Toy. You're sweet, kind, stubborn, serious, noble, brave…you're beautiful, Toy," Jin said, "But right now you're mostly bein' a cock tease. An' I can't keep touchin' an' kissin' an' seein' ya naked without makin' love with ya. Man can only take so much, Toy."

Touya was uncertain.

"If you don't want to, I'll deal. Really would like to—not that's a reason to make ya say yes. I wanna make love but only if that's ya want to too. I love ya so I don't wanna make ya do anythin' ya don't wanna do yourself. …Figured ya had enough a' that."

"Jin…"

"Jabberin', aren't I? Okay, I'll shut up."

"I do not mind. I like that you speak what is on your mind." Touya said, surprising Jin with a genuinely bright smile. "And I do listen. It just sometimes takes a while to sink in."

"Toy…that smile…" was all Jin could say before succumbing to awe and admiration.

"Jin..." Touya said, seemingly capturing just little enough of Jin's attention to know he was listening, "I want to make love with you too."

"Really, Toy, ya mean it?" Jin was all smiles and bright-eyed excitement and as soon as Touya nodded in affirmation, Jin gave him a swift, sudden, hard smooch, their parting lips making an audible smack.

Though he was just showing his eagerness, Jin's enthusiasm made Touya nervous and also second-guess his decision.

"Ah, thought a' somethin'! Be right back, 'kay Toy?" Jin said, wrapping his blanket around and over him. "There ya go. Won't get cold while I'm gone now. Don't worry, won't be long."

And then Jin hurried out of the room, footsteps pounding down the hallway. He had not even closed the shoji screen behind him in his rush.

 _This is our goodbye,_ Touya thought, as his hood caved in and the covers fell over his face. He let the blanket stay there. _First and last._

True to his word, Jin came back quickly.

Jin smiled as he peeked up at him underneath the blanket. "You look like a fluffy snow bunny, Toy," Jin said, lightly laughing as he leaned in for a kiss. "Got a little cold, ya did, but be nothin' a few warmin' kisses can't fix." And, setting a jar to the side, Jin proceeded to do just that.

"What is that?" Touya said, as Jin kissed his chest.

"Somethin' that'll make things easier for us."

For some reason, Touya had thought Jin would possibly not go through with making love with him, that it was just Jin talking, but knowing he was intent and was gathering the necessary preparation suddenly made all his words very real to Touya. His heartbeat quickened.

Touya was awash with racing thoughts, mixed feelings, but mostly confusion. He wished for once since meeting Jin a choice could be easy for him. Easy and definitive. But since meeting Jin, any question that ever revolved around his feelings for Jin was never easy and he could never truly decide. He hated his indecision. He wished his choices were so uncomplicated he never needed to be indecisive.

But did he want to make love with Jin? Yes. And no. He wanted the good feelings, to feel more of Jin's warmth, his kisses, his touch. He wanted to make a lasting memory for Jin and one for himself to have to hold back the loneliness. He wanted one last night of happiness.

But he was uncomfortable with being naked and seeing Jin naked. There was nothing physically wrong with Jin's body—in fact, quite the opposite. He was gorgeous. Touya could not help but eye his muscles moving in his long, strong body, memorizing his form, making his own mental portrait to carry with him after he left.

Touya's own, however, he wished to cover back up. In the Winter Tribe, not even husbands and wives showed their bare bodies to one another. Bare skin was unsightly, shameful. It was an embarrassment to be caught or forced naked. Touya's muscles were not as impressive or defined. He had some, yes, but he was not fed well enough to let his body shape such sturdy contours like Jin's.

He worried over how much it would hurt. He worried over what he would be expected to do, having never made love before. He did not think he would be any good. He knew he would not. And what if he enjoyed it too much. So much so he could not bring himself to say goodbye to Jin. This had to be it though. This had to be their goodbye.

Touya still wavered between his choices even as Jin stripped off their underwear, Touya's first, then his.

"'Kay, Toy, gonna feel weird fer a bit, it will," Jin said, popping the sealed lid from the jar. "But it'll make things better for us, I promise."

Touya said nothing as Jin helped him onto his right side—more like Jin turned him onto his side without him resisting—and prepared him. It did feel strange. Touya lay holding his breath as Jin's fingers worked his flesh and applied the cold gel generously.

He wondered what he had gotten himself into.

Touya's heart pounded as he sat in Jin's lap, cock erect and poised to enter him. Touya had no idea how he was going to fit inside him. He supposed he was about to find out…

His trembling hands resting on Jin's steady shoulders, Touya looked about unsure, his face flushed, as Jin began to pull his hips down.

"Please stop," Touya said suddenly. "I-I can't."

Halting that instant, Jin stared wide-eyed back at him and blinked, "Well, okay, if you can't go through with it—"

"No, it is not that. It is…" Touya said, averting his stare to the side and confusing Jin even more. "…You cannot see my face."

"Why not?" Jin said, grinning cheekily. "Maybe I want ta see ya. I bet'cha make some beautiful faces, Toy."

"Please no…" Touya said, covering a hand over his red face. " …It is too embarrassing."

He let Jin take his hand away and watched him as he brought his wrist to his lips and kissed his pulse.

"All right, Toy. How 'bout like this then?"

Jin told him to sit in his lap facing the other way.

"I…don't know," Touya said, gazing back over his shoulder. "Do we have to…this way?"

"Nah, we can do it any way ya want, Toy," Jin said, amusing himself a bit by rapid spider-walking his hand all across his back. "I just wanted you to have some control over us. Bein' our first, I can't promise ya it won't be easy 'er it won't hurt but you know your body better than I do. Hafta tell me if it hurts 'er ya can't stand it, 'kay?"

"Okay," Touya said, "But if I have some control, does that mean…does that mean I have to move?"

Jin laughed, "'Course it does, Toy. Ah, don't worry, you'll figure it out. An' don't be underestimatin' these hips."

Uncertain he would be able to do anything, Touya was rather hoping Jin could do more. Much as he appreciated Jin giving him some control, Touya was not sure he could handle having it.

Whatever Jin had thoroughly coated him with certainly left him slick. Perhaps a bit too slick, as he felt himself sliding ever so a bit more, forcing him to sit consciously to keep himself from slipping down until he was comfortable to do so.

Pulling him into a hug, Touya's back laying against his chest, Jin kissed his shoulder, "All right, it be, Toy. Take your time."

 _I am not positive we have enough time for me to spend,_ Touya thought, breath quickening as he tried to quickly grow accustomed to Jin inside him. Even though Jin had spent plentiful time to prepare him, it was still an unfamiliar and uncomfortable sensation. It also was a bit more stretching than Jin's fingers had readied him for.

"You're curled up tighter than a pill bug, Toy. Gonna hafta relax if ya want it ta not hurt a lot," Jin said. "Easy now. No need for all this huff an' puffin'. Breathe with me, Toy. Slowly."

Touya breathed in and out slowly. He felt the broad press of Jin's chest rising against his back as he breathed with him. He felt Jin's hard nipples.

"There ya go, Toy, there ya go," Jin said, rubbing his chest in reassuring circles.

Touya's breathing evened. "Sorry, Jin, I am—"

"Nervous, I know," Jin said. "I'm a little meself, ya know, bein' me first. But don't worry an' get your nerves tangled around your air. Be a lot scarier in your head than it really be, love."

 _I admire his sincerity,_ Touya thought as Jin helped him set aside his fears with plentiful caresses. Bit by bit, Touya found himself able to relax.

"I think I am ready," he said as he realized he had absolutely no idea of what to do now that he was.

_Jin did say I would figure it out…_

Touya supposed he should move.

He was cautious and careful. He moved just a little. There was some pain but whatever Jin had put inside him had made everything considerably easier. It was difficult for Touya to imagine himself continuing without it. Once his initial apprehensions faded, Touya slipped down a little farther and found his sigh was not entirely out of pain.

"Okay, Toy?" Jin asked, switching from nipping his earlobe to kissing down his neck.

"…Yes," Touya said breathlessly.

"All right, I'm gonna move now. Tell me if ya can't bear it."

Jin eased through his first thrust, starting off in pain as Touya's body stretched but quickly turned into pleasure. It was such a strange but wonderful feeling. And Jin was taking his time, making slow, gentle pushes inside him. Touya appreciated the thoughtfulness but from the way delight like rousing embers stirred and warmed inside him, he doubted slow and gentle would suffice him for long.

There was pain, yes, the worst of it coming from his side as Touya arched his back and ground his hips on Jin's hard, thick cock, but he did not mind the pain. After all, he was used to all his rare gifts of pleasure being intertwined with painful punishments, so why would this moment be any different than the others?

For once, however, the pleasure did outweigh the pain. Thanks to the contents of that small jar, he was slick and ready to take Jin's thrusts, remaining slow but rising in force. His skin tingled in a way Touya could best equate to the raw burn of a blizzard wind. His heart pounded and, though much as he tried to stifle them, quiet moans escaped his lips.

"Sounds like we're doin' all right," Jin said cheerfully, one arm around Touya's waist for support, the other hand rubbing a stiff nipple.

"Faster," Touya groaned.

"Huh, are ya sure?" Jin asked. "Don't ya think ya might need a bit more time?"

"I will be fine, Jin. I am not as delicate as I look."

"I know that, Toy. You're as strong as ya are beautiful," Jin said, kissing his cheek. "Just wanted to make sure though. Never hurts ta check."

Touya laughed, though with little air his laugh sounded more like soft gasps, "I do not associate you with taking the cautious route."

"Nah, I don't. Not often," Jin said. "For you, though, I will. Always do what's best for Toy, I will."

Touya smiled as the speed of Jin's thrusts increased and his smile was swiftly replaced by a low airy moan.

This could not be. Nothing in the village or within the mists could feel this good. Nothing could leave him shuddering with desire as fire sparked through every inch of his aching body. Such feelings Touya did not know were possible. Madness took over his body as he met Jin's drives and Jin's hand slipped down, took his cock in hand, and pumped. Touya was delirious with demand, a need for Jin and his warmth, a need to be touched, kissed, and loved. His body was ablaze with heat and slick with sweat.

Touya knew ice. He knew cold. He did not know warmth and heat. All his life he had been told to be like ice, to be cold, fixed, and unyielding. Touya was like ice but ice did not suit Touya. Not completely. His body burning and feeling as though his flesh was melting, Touya knew he was not like ice—he was like water. Water could change and adapt. Water could bend and storm. Water could be gentle or violent. Water could become ice. All his life he had been told to be like ice but ice was not everything he was.

Touya's mouth searched for Jin's and found it blindly. Their tongues met as Touya rolled his hips over Jin's erection slowly, relishing in the change of pace and the slow torturous ecstasy rippling over him rendering him even more desperate for release.

These sensations of fire, of melting, of having just little enough air to catch the next gasp, these feelings of desire, hunger, and rapture Touya knew it all should be terrifying to him. But it wasn't. None of it was. He was safe with Jin.

Matching Touya's pace, Jin slowed down his strokes. Even though he was at a different speed, his touch still sent shudders throughout his body. Jin's hands, Touya cherished them. His hands had only shown him love and warmth. They had protected him and held him aloft. And the only time they had ever been harsh had been to defend him. They were treasures to Touya.

His tightly knotted ache begged to cease. Unable to stand it any longer, Touya hurried his hips. Perhaps he should have let Jin see his face, then he could have seen how much this meant to him, how much the world only seemed to consist of them in this moment.

With a single final push, Jin called Touya's name and came. The surge of excitement rushed through him, one river of desire coursing into another, and sent him over the edge as well with a single sharp gasp of air.

He was lost in this one moment of being absolutely alive, a moment that until now he had been apparently waiting all his life to feel.

The rest was quite dreamlike until Touya could regain his breath. He remembered the sense of broadness of Jin's chest as he laid back against him. He remembered his hands touching him and a kiss on his slim shoulders.

When the dream ceased to be so hazy, Touya found himself laying beside Jin. His flesh was flushed, his heart thudded in his chest, and his body was exhausted. He heard the rustle of the blankets, felt Jin moving beside him, and wondered how Jin had the strength left.

"Toy? Toy?" he heard Jin whispering. "Look at me. Look."

Touya did not think he possessed the strength to look but he managed to find just enough to open his eyes.

He found Jin staring back at him. Somehow, he was strong enough to hold himself over Touya. A tired but happy smile slowly stretched itself across Jin's face, as bright as sunlight even though the darkness of night around them. He never wanted to forget his face.

Though he was sleepy and happy and full of peace, a fear curled itself up and out from the depths of his stomach.

After all, the whole point of his sneaking off had been to tell Jin goodbye but when Touya finally met with him again and was so instantaneously wrapped up in his arms, he could not bring himself to say much of anything, much less goodbye. On top of that, his worst fears had came true—he had enjoyed making love with Jin too much. So much so he did not want to leave him.

Touya had failed to say goodbye and, by his own poor judgment, had made things worse for himself and Jin. Why had he agreed? Why had he been so foolish? Why could he not have just said goodbye and left like he had planned? This had been a terrible idea.

Because now, without a doubt, Touya knew he belonged with Jin.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's Notes: Thanks to Ischemia for commenting on the last chapter. I thank everyone who commented, bookmarked and gave kudos.
> 
> Honestly, I'm sad to see this story end but I'm happy to have it completed as well. And, though this is the final chapter, this is not the last story in this AU. Though it'll be a while before I can get to them, there are sequels.
> 
> For the final time, thanks for reading.

Story Title: A Tale of Snowdrops

Disclaimer: So many things weren't done because I don't own Jin and Touya. Probably for the best.

-o-

Day Five: In Which Goodbyes Are Said and Partings Must Be Made, Part 2

-o-

Rousing from dreams of flying between azure skies and blue lakes that stretched on endlessly, Jin woke up partially enough to feel a chill and realized he had turned over away from Touya in his sleep. And that was something Jin was not going to let be. After all, a cuddle and sleepy kisses were in order.

Jin found the rest of his bed empty.

Snapping awake, Jin looked about his room quickly but saw Touya nowhere or any sign of where he might have gone. Jin told himself he had just stepped out for a moment. He told himself Touya would be back and that his fear was unneeded and, when he came back, he could hold him and toss all his worries right now into the wind.

Jin knew Touya wasn't coming back.

His chest felt both hollow and heavy, even though he knew the two shouldn't be. The pit of his stomach felt so weighted down with invisible stones he didn't think he could fly. His heart plunged further as he noticed the folded up paper beside his pillow. He knew it was from Touya and he didn't want to read it. He forced himself to lean over and pick it up. It was another heavy breath before he managed to unfold it and take in its words.

_Jin,_

_By the time you read this, I will already be back with my tribe, preparing to depart for the mists. Do not come and see me off. It will be far too dangerous for us both and it will only make our separation more agonizing than it already is._

_Truthfully, I do not wish to leave you. Your love and kindness and the generosity and acceptance your tribe has shown me has been more than I ever have been or will ever be shown. You are probably wondering then why I would shun the light you offer me to remain in the dark, to use your comparison. The reason is simple—it is all I have ever known._

_The ways of my tribe are ingrained in me. The lessons I have learned have been beaten into me, quite figuratively and literally. My view of the world is distorted and I have rarely been in sole control of myself or bore the greatest influence on my decisions and actions. You have opened my eyes to other possibilities, but our few days together will not triumph over the years my tribe has held over me._

_Even If I stayed, the lessons of my tribe tell me that tragedy will strike us. With any sort of happiness I have received, it comes at a painful price. I fear the retribution that would be dealt to us if I remained with you because I know it will be a horrific, insurmountable punishment because you make me very, very happy. But I am…simply not meant to be as happy as you. And whatever price I would have to pay to remain with you, I do not wish you to suffer with me. I could not bear it._

_If I was meant to enjoy such freedom and joy as you, if you and I were meant to be without repercussions, I would have been born into the Spring Tribe. However, I was not. Our meeting was a chance encounter and it was fleeting but the memories and sentiments you have given me I will treasure for the rest of my life. I will always remember you and I will always love you._

_Please, after the heartache subsides, I ask you do one thing for me._

_Be happy._

After he finished reading twice, Jin sat staring at the words.

This couldn't be. This wasn't happening. Why was he leaving? Why wasn't he staying? Jin had thought…with the way he had smiled…Jin had never seen him smile like that before.

In that moment, Touya had seemed so genuinely happy. Jin had been certain of two things—one, that he had fallen in love with Touya all over again and two, Touya was going to stay. Their making love after had been a celebration of their happiness. That smile had been such a beautiful, breathtaking, perfect sight—it had truly lit up his face, the room, their souls, everything. Jin would never forget it. When he thought of Touya, that final smile would be the first thought to mind. And so it seemed that had been Touya's plan all along.

Tossing on a simple training shirt and pants, Jin dashed from his room and out onto the streets, nearly plowing through a fellow tribemate in his hurry. After his very swift apology, the lad tried to ask Jin what his rush was for but Jin explained he had no time and ran off.

Maybe Touya had told him not to see him off but Jin had to. He had to ask him to stay one last time. He didn't care if his tribe saw him. He didn't even care if his uncle was there needling his hateful, cold eyes into them. He didn't care if he had to drop to his knees and beg him to stay. He was ready to do anything for Touya to stay with him. Even if he had to steal Touya away. Because there was no way he was going to allow Touya to walk into the mist and let him be abused, unappreciated, and shunned by his tribe ever again.

Besides, Touya couldn't leave. He just couldn't. There were too many words of love and admiration left to tell, shout, and whisper. There were too many hugs, kisses, laughs, simple looks and smiles across the room left to give. There were skies, stars, and blossoms to see, dances to dance, games to play, sun-warmed meadows to doze in, nights to stay up and mornings to sleep in. There was too much left to experience with Touya for this to be goodbye. Touya couldn't leave him yet.

So Jin had to find him, had to reach him and offer him the world one more time and hope to all the fair winds he took it.

He was a block down the street before it came to Jin's memory that he could fly and that flying would be faster than his swift feet could take him. As he summoned his spirit energy into the air, he accidentally collided with an another fellow from his tribe. Though when he saw who it was, Jin realized it probably wasn't much of an accident at all.

"Well, well, well, Jin's off an' runnin' an' here breakfast ain't quite done yet," said the brute, smirking down on him, "What be it, Jin? Somethin' botherin' ya?"

"Ah, get outta me way, ya stupid boar!" Jin said, swiping at him as he stood back up. "Got no time for yer shit, I don't!"

"Why not?" he asked, still with that arrogant, no-good smirk on his face. "Got someplace ta be?"

"Yea, so get at it!" Jin punched him in the face, tossing the jerk back with the force of his muscle merged with the wind.

Though he staggered a bit, the bastard had enough sense and reflex to grab Jin by the hair and wrench him back down as he tried to fly off. Before Jin knew it, the brute had him pinned against a wall. Jin tried to throw him off with a burst of wind and energy but the jerk manipulated a counter wind around himself. For all their typical fist to fist fights, Jin had forgotten he could manipulate the wind.

"Nuh uh, Jin, I ain't stupid. I know where you're goin'," he growled. "You're gonna go ask that Winter boy ta stay an' I ain't lettin' ya."

"Oh, like ya really have the wind ta stop me, do ya?" Jin said, flashing a superior grin.

"Yea, I do."

"Be a first," Jin smarted back.

"This time'll be diff'rent," the brute assured.

Jin doubted. Really, he thought it was going to be more of the same. Fine with him. Jin didn't have time to mess around. He wasn't going to mess around. If the bastard was stupid enough to get in his way of finding Touya, it was his own damn fault if he got his head knocked around for it.

-o-

As the last belongings and bedding was steadily being packed, Touya walked the alleyways to keep out of sight. It was not so much he needed not to be seen, it was simply that he wished not to be seen. He wanted a piece of solitude, a moment of quiet contemplation, a chance to notice the world around him and see it for what it was.

The world around him was not the world he was familiar with, though. No, the ice and snow had melted away, the days were not as cold and the nights not as biting. The pulse in the earth was now strong in the village, even on the Winter Tribe's self-imposed side. Touya could see tiny green shoots budding from the supposedly dead brown vines clinging to their houses. This was not his world but it was still filled with wondrous things worthy of being noticed.

 _It is a shame,_ Touya realized, _that my tribe has always strove to overworking us all or have been too fearful of our world to truly appreciate the beauty around us. It is also unfortunate that it has been decided that we shall only live in a world of winter. Why can we not stay and see the world change? Is it a rule of our world that we must leave or it is simply our choice to depart to the mists?_

Touya walked enjoying the silence and wondering questions he highly doubted would ever be answered. He was nearly back to the servants' quarters when he heard the high cries of a child in pain. Touya hurried down the winding alleyways and soon found Hyou beating up a boy, about ten-years-old if Touya had to guess.

"—Thought you wanted to play," Hyou said, laughing as he kicked the already pretty bruised up boy to the ground. "Are you not having fun?"

"Hyou, stop it," Touya ordered.

Hyou gave a quick look over his shoulder and did not care that Touya was there. "Oh, you," he said nonchalantly as he stomped the boy in the chest. "Excuse me, little cousin, but this is a private matter. Kindly keep your big head out of this."

" _Hyou_ ," Touya ordered once more, ice daggers forming in his hand. "Leave him alone."

Seeing the daggers, Hyou halted mid-stomp. He paused for a moment, eyes darting from the daggers to Touya and back, and then he smiled smugly before backing off. The boy hurried and struggled to get up but once he was, he ran to Touya.

"Big brother!" he shouted and threw his arms around Touya's waist.

The new designation honestly surprised Touya. The other day had been the first time he and the younger Winter children had ever truly interacted before and yet apparently that day of play was enough for this boy (and perhaps the others) to adopt him as an honorary older brother.

Crouching down to the frightened, hurt boy's level, Touya muttered reassurances and wiped away his tears. Off to the side, Touya noticed Hyou watching, his expression confused at first and then melded back to his usual conceited amusement. Touya told the boy to run home. The boy nodded and then quickly hugged him around his neck before running off.

"Filth attracts filth, I suppose," Hyou said, smarting off at his apparent new popularity with the younger kids. "How good it is to see you back, Touya. I had wondered if your savage had captured you in the night and deflowered you in some sort of bridal-claiming rite while the rest of the grunting muck elves watched."

"You are wrong, Hyou. You know nothing about the other tribe. And if you must know, I went to him."

"Said your goodbyes then?" Hyou said as he headed off and Touya followed beside him.

"Yes, and more," Touya said.

In a rare display of emotion, Hyou's eyes widened and he paused in his step. "By what does that mean—" and then it clicked together. "You did not really lay with that muck elf?"

Touya did not respond.

Quickly, Hyou regained his control. He smirked and snorted derisively. "It should not surprise me that you have further disgraced us by rutting with an animal. No wonder the stupid beast is so ready to bear his fangs for you. Be a pity if he lost his seed-vessel, would it not, little cousin?"

Touya's stare sharpened and his jaw firmed. "I see no reason to waste the breath to refute that, as you have already made your judgment of Jin and his tribe and will refuse to accept any other view than that, _my_ _brother._ "

Hyou's tight, cold mask shattered. " _How dare you—"_

"It is the truth, is it not?" Touya said. "You have obviously not forgotten that. Not that you have ever treated me like one. Or like any sort of family."

Hyou grabbed him one-handed by his kimono and pushed him against the side of a house. "Because you are not. You are the blight that rots the vine. You are a disgrace."

"I am…" Touya said, tone wavering a little but growing bolder as he grabbed Hyou's wrist and broke his grip, "…not a disgrace."

Hyou frowned in disgust. "My, have we not grown high and mighty."

"No, I have not," Touya said. "I am merely standing as an equal."

Hyou snorted in arrogance. "Worms do not stand up, Touya. They crawl along the ground and pray they are not crushed."

"You should speak to the medicine man about your eyes, Hyou," Touya said, trying to step around Hyou and get away from the wall, "for I am not a worm."

Cutting him off, Hyou shoved him back. "That is where you are wrong," he said in a low dark whisper, a blizzard whirling in his gray eyes. "You are a worm. A foul, ugly, despicable, shit-eating little worm that is lucky it was not stepped on the day it was born."

Touya's expression remained impassive. "Say whatever pleases you but it will not hurt me. Nothing you can say will hurt me anymore."

"Fine!" Hyou said, face pinched tight, "I'll just let my fists—"

With a quick raise of his forearm, Touya blocked Hyou's punch.

Hyou stared wide-eyed in disbelief and shock before he managed to somewhat recover and tried punching him again with his left. It too was blocked. Another try of his right and the same result. At last it occurred to him to try something new so he tried to knee him, only for Touya to turn away from it in the last moment. With each miss, his staggering disbelief compounded, coming to a head with a mouthed, "This cannot be…"

Truthfully, Touya was also surprised, though he did not show it. He did not know what was going on. It was quite strange. It did not make much sense to him. Things were not like this before. Why had it changed?

While Hyou was overcome with shock, Touya nudged him out of the way and headed back toward his uncle's house.

"Where do you think you are going?" Hyou said.

"I must speak with Uncle," Touya said, looking over his shoulder. "Can you tell me where he might be?"

"Does not matter if I do know," Hyou said, his lavender energy glowing off his body. "Because you will not get to see him."

Touya sidestepped Hyou's first ice punch, winding up splattering a patch of ice on the house to the left. Since his first punch failed, Hyou followed up with a frenzied barrage of punches, all of which Touya dodged but covered the alleyway behind him in a glimmering layer of blue ice.

Touya did not understand why Hyou was hemorrhaging so much energy. If his intent was to freeze their surroundings, he could have easily done that with a simple coating blast of his energy. It was one of the fundamental moves his father taught to the apprentices, certainly it was something an ice journeyman like Hyou could have done.

Having flitted onto a rooftop, he calmly watched a scowling Hyou search wildly about for him. Touya was not positive of what to make of his cousin's behavior. He did not even seem to be trying to regain his composure. It was quite unsettling to watch.

At last, he caught sight of him and threw yet another punch for Touya to simply leap out of the way.

Touya appeared behind him, "Hyou—"

Hyou immediately turned around shouting and sliced at him with a short ice blade jutting from two frozen together fingers. Touya walked backwards, sometimes merely leaning back, to avoid his erratic swings. For some reason, one Touya could not comprehend, all of Hyou's attacks were slow and easy to follow. It did not seem right for them to be so slow. This was and should not be happening but it was. But why?

Giving up on his knife, Hyou jumped back—and to Touya's surprise, slipped on the icy road a little on his landing—and then jettisoned his power into a frozen burst.

It was then, sensing the depth of Hyou's power, that Touya understood what the problem was—Touya was stronger than Hyou. Much stronger. So much stronger Touya did not summon his energy to counter Hyou's and instead merely crossed his arms in front of himself and endured it. He had barely registered the chill.

Hyou tried shooting him with hailstones. Touya had always known Hyou was a poor shot and his performance here was no better. This time, though, he finally knew why.

When they were children and were on equal levels, Hyou had often beat Touya up or used him as a practice dummy for his ice training. But the years went by and Hyou hid behind his father and bullied everyone around him and rarely trained while Touya trained constantly, practicing journeyman and master techniques he had observed in secret or moves he improvised and simply did not know they had never been done before.

Hyou's attacks were slow because they were slow and Touya's reflexes were much quicker. Hyou seemed to be wasting energy on missing attacks because he was wasting energy on missing attacks. To make matters worse, he was letting his anger blind his judgment, a lesson that was a fundamental tenet of their tribe. The truth was that Hyou was lazy, spoiled and, unbeknownst to him, weak.

"Do you not see how pathetic you are?" Hyou said, laughing maniacally and out of breath. "All you have done is scurry around like a frightened rabbit. You have not hit me once!"

"I have not hit you because you are not worth it," Touya said.

Hyou's flushed face deepened with indignation as he snarled back at Touya. Once again, he flared his spirit energy and this time threw icicle javelins at him. Touya doubted this technique was meant to be utilized like the ice daggers but Hyou thought it fit. He had about the same rate of success with this attempt as he had with all his other attacks.

It did not take long for him to expend his burst of energy. At last, his battle aura faded and Hyou slouched forward, heavily out of breath. His skin matched the color of Jin's hair, not that his cousin would have wanted to hear the comparison. He hoped this was the end. Hyou could not have much left in him.

 _His rage is so persistent, though,_ Touya observed. _Would he dare tap into his life energy if he thought it would stop me? …No, he would not. Hyou is too much of a coward._

Forming another ice blade, this one longer than his first, Hyou shambled forward, slipping a bit on his ice in his tired, slow charge.

"Hyou, stop this," Touya said, turning away from a jab. "Has it not occurred to you that you are outmatched?"

"Outmatched? How can I be outmatched? I am a journeyman, an elite at that!" Hyou shouted, blindly slicing at Touya in a great wild frenzy. "I am destined to become the next Ice Master, Father has told me so himself! How can I be outmatched by a disgrace?!"

Touya saw Hyou stumble on the ice and fall forward.

"I am not a disgrace, Hyou," Touya said, catching him and helping him back onto his feet. Hyou was so exhausted he could not stand on the ice without Touya's assistance. "I did nothing—"

"You were born! You ruined everything! It was all perfect before you came along," Hyou said, hands on Touya's shoulders for support and his dark red face scrunched up tightly as he fought back his tears. "When you arrived…I did not matter to her anymore. She loved you. More than me. Always did. Always would."

"Mother did love you," Touya said reassuringly. He was not certain of what else to say or do. A moment ago, Hyou was trying to kill him. Now, he was the only thing keeping his cousin standing as he tenuously tried to keep himself from breaking down.

"Not like she did you," Hyou said, voice cracking through his tears. "She was there for me and cared for me but not in the way she was for you. You were the village to her. I was just the surrounding mists."

Hyou collapsed into sobs. Though he feared his cousin might try to stab him, Touya counted on him being too tired to pull such a ploy and held him. Hyou shook violently as he cried into Touya's shoulder. It was such a strange feeling to be comforting Hyou but this moment was also the first time Touya felt like they were something like family, like brothers.

As Hyou's trembling lessened, Touya helped him back home. The few members of his tribe they had passed by said nothing as he plodded along with a weary, crying Hyou. It was not in his tribe's nature to inquire into the well-being of someone so visibly distressed. No, it was far more in his tribe's nature to scowl in shame at seeing someone red-faced and crying. Such displays of emotion were always disgraceful and frowned upon.

Touya helped Hyou sit down on the veranda. His face was still red and puffy and he was drawing in air in short sniffs but Hyou had mostly stopped crying.

"…You killed her," Hyou whined, bottom lip quivering.

"I did not kill her. Your father did."

"He-He would not have had to if it were not for you and _him_ ," Hyou said, referring to Touya's father.

"Hyou…" was all Touya could say.

"Father should have killed you and left Mother alone," Hyou said as he wiped his face dry with his kimono sleeve. "You were the problem. You always are."

 _Some things do not change, especially the people of my tribe,_ Touya sighed. "Tell me, where is Uncle?"

"He is in a meeting with the elders," Hyou explained.

Touya offered thanks and then turned to leave. Hyou would be fine. It was his uncle he needed to see most.

"Touya," Hyou called and Touya stopped and faced him. "Whatever you are thinking in that big head of yours, I hope it fails. I pray that you die."

After all these years of torment, apparently fueled by jealousy for their mother's love, Hyou's words did not surprise him. Without a single show of response, Touya headed on to the elders' meetinghouse.

-o-

Having knocked one another all across the village, Jin and the brute took to the air and bashed one another across the sky and into the forest below. In the air, Jin was faster, due to his lighter frame, and he was better at wind manipulation than the brute. Granted the bastard was twice his age and hadn't been in training in years, but Jin didn't think the brute had graduated to master. Actually, he wasn't sure if he had made it to journeyman, but he at least knew enough to counter Jin some of the time.

 _Huh, always thought he be nothin' but dumb muscle,_ Jin thought as he made a quick aerial back-turn and knocked the brute from the sky with a swift heel kick to the head. _'Least the jerk had enough sense to train a while. He's stronger than the last time, I hafta admit that. …Gonna be a problem, that is. I don't have the time ta waste._

Out of the tree cover, the brute soared back into the sky. If it wasn't for the fact Jin could sense his energy as he flew, the brute's tactic of coming up from behind might have worked. Knowing full well his plan, Jin circled around and grabbed the brute's punch as he rushed him.

"He ain't one a' us, Jin. He's one a' them," the brute shouted, trying with his other left.

Catching both fists, Jin struggled with the brute, "Doesn't matter if he be somethin' else! If he wants ta stay, let'em stay. Never done anythin' ta ya so why ya give damn anyway?"

"He belongs with them," the brute replied, wincing as Jin started overpowering him.

"Ah, like ya know a rat's piss about him, do ya?" Jin said, pushing the brute's wrists back farther and driving him back. "Nah, ya don't. But I do! An' he don't belong wit them. Not a bit. But you'd fit right an' happy, bunch a' know-nothin' heartless bastards."

"He left, Jin. Let 'im go," the brute said, muscles shaking, veins protruding in his arms. "There's better pussy ta pound among our lasses anyway an' it be real."

Something more than just their locked hands snapped inside Jin.

Jin grabbed and squeezed the brute's throat closed with one hand. "Don't ever speak of my Touya like that!" Jin growled low. "Ought ta rip our your tongue, I should, for sayin' stupid nasty shit. Mam never taught ya 'bout not sayin' stuff about a man's one an' only, didn't she?"

Little high squeaks of pain escaped from the brute's open mouth. Reluctantly, Jin released him. Much as he was a big dumb jerk few liked, Jin still didn't want to kill him.

"You think he's your one an' only?" the brute said hoarsely, holding his throat and catching his breath. "You're more fucked up in the head than I thought, Jin."

"This comin' from a child beater sayin' I've got a few peas loose in my pod. Oh, your blessin' really matters to me," Jin said, voice laced with sarcasm.

"Jin, our worlds are meant ta be separate. You just can't take one of them. It ain't how the world works."

"So that's how it goes. Never knew ya knew anythin' but how ta get yer ass-kicked," Jin said. "Told ya I don't have time for ya an' I don't. I need to see Touya an' nobody's gonna stop me."

Jin coursed the wind around himself to rush faster. He then circled around and flew off. Sure the jerk was stronger now but Jin couldn't waste time with him. He could beat the bastard up any day he wished but he had to stop Touya from leaving _now_.

Jin gritted his teeth and cursed as he felt the brute's energy surge and heard the croaking roar of his voice how tell he wasn't 'lettin' 'im get to 'im'. He stopped and turned, ready to knock the brute out with one final hard right, only to be unexpectedly caught in a sudden tackle by the stupid boar in a mad, soaring, glowing, rampaging charge.

-o-

Reason told Touya he should be more worried and fear told him to run away but he truly only felt calm as he approached the elders' meetinghouse. He supposed it was strange of him to feel so calm when by all logic his heart should be beating and his body faintly trembling underneath his kimono. But all his nerves were still and fixed like ice. After all, there was no fear left in him. He had accepted his decision and all the consequences that became from it. He had calm and clarity facing what was inevitably going to be the end of his life among the Winter Tribe.

Touya slid opened the shoji screen and stepped inside the meetinghouse. He did not lower himself and scurry on the balls of his feet like a repentant servant. He walked.

The hushed whispers of the elders ceased as soon as he appeared in the doorway. Aside from the blazing fire pit in the center of the room, there were no other lights. Fire flickered in the stern icy eyes of the eight elders and illuminated their scowling faces. Their shadows stretched and arched and consumed the walls behind them, forming black beasts with raised razor claws, needle-sharp beaks or with long muzzles with many pointed fangs.

Touya reminded himself that it was just a trick of the shadows and that the crackling sound he was hearing was from the fire and not the beasts' claws and teeth clacking together in anticipation of a meal.

At the proper distance between them, Touya lowered himself onto his knees and bowed deeply, his forehead touching the wooden floor. "Please, elders, I, a wretched, worthless disgrace, beg of you to grant me one request, the only I will ever implore of you. I ask that you banish me from the tribe." Though he could not see their faces to judge their reactions, Touya did note they were silent. They were not outright refusing his plea.

"If we were to bestow upon you this request, where would you go?" the Chief asked.

"I will stay here," Touya replied, keeping his head bowed. "I will remain with the Spring Tribe."

"Willingly?" said another elder. "You want to stay with those savages?"

"Yes, I would."

"We will grant no such request," his uncle said.

Swiftly, Touya looked up. "Why? I am a disgrace, a blight upon the tribe. Why would you wish to keep me? Why not get rid of me? This is your opportunity. The tribe will regain its honor without me. I mean nothing to you."

Though his uncle remained staring and frowning at him, the rest of the elders deliberated quietly amongst themselves.

"Uncle, you have taught me that the tribe is only as strong as its weakest member," Touya said, appealing to his uncle but intending to reach the other elders' higher reason. "You have also taught me I am the weakest. If the will of the tribe wishes to remain strong, it stands to reason to remove the weak. It will benefit the tribe greatly if you let me go."

Touya saw one of the elders give a slight half-nod to another in agreement. Touya's uncle said nothing at first, merely tightened his frown and closed his eyes for a brief meditative pause.

"Those are my words, little nephew," he at last said. "However, you forget that we are each snowflakes and for the growth and prosperity of our tribe, we need each and every one of us to strive for the benefit of the tribe. As we live, we live for our tribe. All of us. Even the weakest has their purpose and must pull their share."

The elders appeared uncertain as they continued their quiet deliberations sans his uncle. In the end, however, they looked to his uncle. So it seemed that, even though Touya's logic made sense to them, they were still fearful of making any decisive decision without the influence of his uncle bearing weight upon it. It became clear to him that the other elders, not even the Chief, would not decide his fate. The only decision that existed in the Winter Tribe was his uncle's decision.

"We will not let you go, Touya," his uncle said. "Your place is here. How ever insignificant that place may be, you are from the Winter Tribe and you exist for the tribe."

 _I do not exist for the tribe,_ Touya thought, staring down at his warped reflection in the wooden floor. _I exist for your amusement. I exist so that you may bring me suffering. I exist so your hate may fester. If I were to leave, the tribe would move on. Only you, Uncle, would lose your scapegoat. And you cannot face a world where you must take responsibility your cruelty._

"You do not care, do you?" Touya said, anger lining his voice, as he rose to standing and locked eyes with his uncle. "This has nothing to do with the tribe or my being a disgrace. You refuse to let me go because I asked. Because you cannot stand the thought of me being happy, of me finally knowing what it is like to be cared for and loved. Forgive me, Uncle, but you failed! Jin loves me and I love him and you are nothing more than a bitter old corpse nursing boyhood grudges over my dead father, spewing hate and fear and murdering and manipulating the tribe to your own benefit and vile amusement. The will of the tribe is not my own. It is not anyone else's but _yours_ , Uncle. Always has been."

Touya then looked to the rest of the elders. "And you, cowards and pawns who dare to call yourself men, have allowed his corruption. You who claim to be the leaders of our tribe bow and kowtow to the will of one man. Are you truly that blind and ignorant to the state of authority within our tribe? Has not one of you noticed my uncle's manipulations? Have all of you been too cowardly to speak up? Or is the only will he permits you to possess be the will to preserve your own necks?"

Besides his uncle, who showed no emotion, the elders stared stunned, a few mixing in embarrassment, at Touya. He was not positive if they were staring out of the harsh, inconvenient truth of his words or whether they were simply surprised that he had spoken back at all. Touya doubted few had ever opposed against their decisions and they certainly never expected a disgrace to speak out.

 _The time would come,_ Touya thought. _They should have prepared themselves. After all, an ice dagger shines its reflection on both the target and the creator and its blade is double-edge and razor-sharp._

"I will leave," Touya announced definitively.

"Our deliberation is final," his uncle said. "You will stay."

"I will leave." Touya repeated as his uncle opened his mouth to respond. Touya cut him off, "I am beyond requesting the permission of the elders. I will leave and Uncle, you will no longer have the standing to deny me."

His uncle looked on amused and smiled. "And why is that, young nephew? How will I no longer possess the standing?"

"Because I challenge you for your position as Ice Master," Touya said.

His uncle smirked. "You challenge me, nephew? You are aware you are nothing more than an apprentice, and a poor, pathetic one at that, going up against a master. What ever is it that gives you the assurance that you have any chance of defeating me?"

"Because hope is stronger than despair," Touya said.

The rare sight of shock flashed across his uncle's face. Initial recognition over, he quickly restored his impassive mask, his edges lined with anger. "Romantic drivel…" he said disgusted. "…Just like your father."

"That is no insult," Touya said.

As his uncle rose from his place, he scowled and said, "Your blood is your disgrace, nephew."

"The same blood that runs through me runs through you," Touya replied.

"That is where you are wrong," his uncle said, the room freezing over with his power, as he approached. "You are always wrong, little nephew. So very, very wrong."

Touya saw the shine of the ice first and jumped back to avoid the blade. As soon as his feet touched the ice again, he knew his uncle was already behind him. Touya turned and quickly rose a blinder of snow.

Though his uncle charged through it, the snow gave Touya just enough time to summon his energy and make a single shot of hailstones. As he dove out of the way, he whistled the shards at his uncle.

His uncle raised his energy in a frozen barrier and destroyed his hailstones. To no great fret. It was not as if Touya had expected a single small shot of hail would take down their ice master so it did not surprise him that his attack had failed. Touya rolled out of the way and got back on his feet while his uncle's blade was stuck in the frozen floor.

Touya dodged as his uncle sent a flurry of ice punches. Though the maneuvers on both sides were the same, Touya was not casually avoiding his uncle like he had with Hyou. No, Touya's split-second and, quite frankly, fortunately-timed dodges were all necessary to evade his uncle's swift and precise punches.

His feet inching closer and closer, Touya knew he had to keep himself away from backing against the wall. Scrambling to think of something, Touya noticed his uncle's intense sole focus on him, strung an idea, and tried it out. As his uncle fired off another set of ice punches, Touya fell into a slide and kicked his uncle's feet from underneath him. Capitalizing on his uncle's surprise, Touya blasted him in the chest with a burst of frozen energy.

Touya's uncle was a master of the art of ice manipulation. He knew how to fight, how to main and kill, and most of all, how to torture with ice. Touya's uncle also had a very narrow mind. He did not think beyond certain parameters of thought. He did not adapt well. Without ice, his uncle did not know how to fight well. Touya had learned how to fight with and without ice.

As he rose back to standing, bracing a hand on one knee, his uncle glared fiercely at him, his gray wolf eyes promising his ice would bite him slowly and that he would know pain for a good long while. His uncle had never expected that he would manage to hit him. More so, that he would manage to hit him after humiliating him in front the other elders. It was an injustice he could not comprehend and he would not allow to go unrectified.

His dark green energy flared as his uncle wrapped a wintry wind around his body and rushed at him. Touya scurried around the room, fighting the pull of the blizzard wind, and barely missed the hand after hand of ice daggers. He struggled to come up with a plan as he just managed to save parts of his body from sudden impalement and hold himself from being drawn closer toward his enraged uncle.

Maybe he would tire out? He was not going to tire out. He was their Ice Master, the greatest warrior of ice in all of their tribe. Perhaps he would have a change of heart? No, his uncle would need to possess a heart to change. Perhaps he would give Touya the chance to recover? As Touya just escaped the reach of an ice dagger aimed for his head, he realized that was not a possibility either. No, his uncle was set on killing him. Not that surprised him. More he considered it, the more he realized it was nothing truly new.

A misstep gave his uncle the fraction of a second to grab him and tackle him through a wall and out onto the street. Only Touya's quick barrier prevented the violently whirling hardened snowflakes from scraping his hands and face raw or, as his uncle most likely desired, from cutting his eyes.

He laid on his back, his uncle on top of him, their hands locked in a struggle. Whether there was anyone around, Touya could not tell. The roar of the wind muffled his hearing and the glow of their raised energies swirling and battling one another's for dominance blinded his view of the surrounding street. To his memory, there were people outside the elders' meetinghouse before he came in so perhaps they were still there. Then again, the sudden flare of his uncle's spirit energy was enough to send most of his tribe into hiding.

His arms bending and shaking under the weight of his uncle's spiritual power, Touya watched as his uncle, sensing victory, smirked. He grimaced in pain as small bolts of his uncle's energy pierced through his thinning barrier and nicked his palms.

Touya was not certain if it was the utter deep darkness of the green hue of his energy casting such bold shadows and sharp lines across his uncle's face but he knew without a doubt that the evil in his uncle's expression was no mask. His uncle was a man of tranquil fury, of refinement, poise, and grace even at his most violent. Cold was his uncle's nature, even in murder.

Much as his uncle was assured otherwise, Touya was not at his end. There was still much of his will remaining and if he still had the strength, he would fight. With a quick draw in of his legs and a flash redirection of his spirit energy, Touya kicked his uncle hard in the stomach. Their lock broken and his uncle pushed off to the side, he rolled back and onto his feet, immediately following up his recovery with a series of short ice kicks.

His tribe was watching, even the littlest children, he noticed. Most in the nearest vicinity stayed out of the street and observed from the verandas or peeked out from the alleys. Though he could not account for every expression, the general feeling around him was a wash of fear, awe, and anger. There was also a heavy sense of uncertainty in the air, whether it was mainly directed toward his uncle or him, Touya could not tell.

His uncle summoned a half-circle guard of thick ice around himself. Touya readied his hand with hailstones and waited for his uncle to come out from his cover. At the first flutter of movement on the left, Touya blew. His hail broke against his uncle's solid ice arm guard.

Touya jumped out of the way as icicles rained down from the sky like clouds of arrows. When a chance presented itself, he shot another blast of hail but to no effect. He was down to one good shot left and he was determined not to waste the energy he had expended to create it. He had an idea but he was not positive if it would work. It was something he had pondered about in theory but had never tried it out before. He supposed now was a good enough time than any other to put his theory under scrutiny.

Focusing his energy into his hand, Touya formed a hollow shell around the floating ice shards and primed the fist-sized ice ball with extra energy. With a leaping dodge to the right, Touya lobbed the ball at his uncle. To his wide-eyed surprise, his uncle caught it.

His uncle looked amused as he tossed the ball into the air and caught it one-handed. "Your foolishness is a constant disappointment, little nephew. Did you believe a simple training exercise such as this would harm me?"

Touya held his breath and waited for him to notice, waited for his plan to fail either by his uncle recognizing his energy or by an innate flaw in his first-time execution. Both were highly plausible.

"And such poor technique…" his uncle said, turning his hand about as he gazed around the ice ball, his sharp eyes assessing. "The surface is rough and unfinished, the ice is cloudy, and most pathetic of all you did not even form a solid ball. Your skills are shameful, Touya. You do not even deserve the ranking of apprentice."

His uncle looked at him and smiled darkly. He could hear him laughing deep in his throat.

And then the bright green light of Touya's energy pulsed inside the ice ball. Touya watched as his uncle's face went from arrogant and aloof to alarmed and in pain as the ice ball exploded in his hand and shards of frozen shrapnel sliced across his skin.

Having never seen ice manipulated in such a way, his tribe stared stunned. Touya also could not believe what he had seen. He was shocked that his theory had proved practical. He was more surprised that his uncle had caught the ice ball and not sensed his energy in the first place. His overconfidence had fueled his poor judgment.

His uncle stood bent over in agony gripping his left wrist and struggled with himself not to scream out in anger and pain. As the last of the remnants of Touya's energy faded and the misty frost wisped away, the extent of the ice ball's damage was made clear.

His uncle still had a left hand and all his fingers but his hand was a shredded, raw, bleeding mess. The left side of his face was also sliced and bloody and peppered with holes of embedded ice too small to cut. His left eye, by some fortune, had been spared but its surrounding flesh was so swollen he was forced to squint. For a man known for and obsessed with presenting a perfect image, these wounds did far more damage than merely physical.

Breathing heavily through his tightly clenched teeth, his uncle gradually gazed up at him. His eyes promised vengeance. They promised to destroy everything he held dear.

"Your father was a fool…" his uncle said between breaths as he rose to standing. "Your mother was a fool. They believed they could defy me. They were wrong. You will lose, Touya, no matter how hard you fight. You will meet the same fate as your foolish parents."

"If that is my fate," Touya said, head high, "then so be it. But I will fight."

"You two are just alike," his uncle said as he jettisoned his power into a frozen wind, coating their vicinity in ice. "Your father too was exceptionally stupid."

"My father was brave," Touya said, crossing his ice-coated arms in front of himself for protection as his uncle's burst of power flung him back. "Something a coward like you will never comprehend."

His uncle came after him swinging a barrage of ice punches, all blocked by Touya's arm guards. He felt the ice cracking under the repeated force. At first, he worried but as he poured energy into fortifying his arms, he realized the breaking ice could be useful. A quick ice punch to his uncle's solar plexus and a short burst of icy wind to toss him back, Touya uncrossed his arms in a grand sweep and shot the sharp chunks of ice.

Even though his uncle had not defended himself, the improvised attack did less damage to him than expected. In a sense, it had been like a wider-reaching, less accurate and precise, weaker version of the traditional hailstone shot technique. If Touya had put more energy into the ice, it would have done more injury but that was the kind of knowledge one only earned with a new maneuver with practice.

His uncle raised a small snowstorm around them as a blinder. Wind knocking him about and making it difficult to keep his eyes open, Touya searched for the storm's boundary line. And as he looked, he sensed his uncle behind him. He made an attempt to jump out of the way but the wind threw him off balance. He stumbled on his landing and the slight wobble was enough of a pause to allow his uncle the opportunity to imprison him inside a cage of icicles.

Only his head and hands, albeit highly confined, were visible, through the tightly packed javelin-like icicles, though his uncle soon corrected that by following up his attack with a sudden rush toward him and blasting him with a final burst of frozen energy, encasing Touya completely in ice.

Touya stood frozen, eyes open. He could see the vague warped reflection of his uncle through the ice. With no room or ability to breathe within the ice, he was suffocating. He raised his energy and tried manipulating the ice, tried dispelling it or willing it to crack, anything to get free. Touya could not. He was too weak.

"Stupidity is often mistaken for bravery, young nephew," he could hear his uncle's cold drawl reverberating inside the ice. "A shame neither you nor your father never knew the difference. Such knowledge might have spared your lives, though I doubt it would have. Your fate was sealed the moment you turned against the tribe."

If he could have moved his hands, they would have tightened into fists. Touya had never turned against the tribe. He had never done anything to anyone. He had never wanted to hurt anyone. All his life, he had done what he had been told, offered his help wherever he could for the benefit of the tribe, sacrificed for the will of the tribe and received in return nothing but ingratitude and pain.

Last night while Jin slept, arms around him and pulled warm and close, Touya had stayed up and thought of the dream, of living only in the cold, and, for once, of the future and had realized he did not see a future for himself within the Winter Tribe beyond a final punishment from his uncle or walking out into the mists.

The Winter Tribe was unfair, he knew that since he was a baby. And everything wrong with his tribe stemmed from his uncle. Maybe, without his uncle in power, his tribe could do better. Perhaps they could correct their ways, if given the chance. Touya would never know. No one else had challenged his uncle before him and most likely no one ever would. He was the first and last.

A clear image of his mother's portrait flashed before his eyes before fire consumed it once more.

He had taken his parents away from him. Taken their love and affection, comfort, and security from him, driven by envy against his brother. Yes, his father had committed adultery but his uncle had taken the woman that would have been his wife and inevitably Touya's mother. Touya had not deserved to lose his parents, to suffer in his uncle's unrelenting envy, and to live knowing hatred and fear and never true happiness until he had met Jin. Touya had the right to stay with Jin if he so chose to and to enjoy all the wonderful things a life with him offered. His uncle could not take that from him.

He saw his uncle smiling as he leaned in toward the ice and said softly, "In challenging me, you thought yourself brave, when all you were and will always be nothing more than a disgrace."

Something Touya did not expect to happen happened as he felt what he could only best describe as a wall breaking inside him and a sudden surge of power flowed throughout his body from his newfound depths. Anger, years of it suppressed consciously and unconsciously, had finally pierced his self-imposed restraint on his own spirit energy.

"Enough!" he shouted as the ice shattered around him. Touya stood, glare locked on his uncle, as his brilliant light green spirit energy glowed steady around him.

"The boy…" one elder began to say before fading into slack-jawed silence.

"…Is so strong," another finished.

"He is his father's son," said the Chief.

If his sudden fountain of power surprised him, his uncle did not show it. He looked on amused and snorted derisively. "Hn. So you possess the raw power, however you lack the discipline."

"I have the discipline," Touya said firmly. "You and everyone else in this tribe have shown me plenty of discipline."

Touya charged toward his uncle. As his uncle blocked his ice punches, Touya noticed that the mere presence of his energy spawned frost on his uncle's kimono. Seeing the shine of an ice blade, Touya intercepted his uncle's attack with a swift raise of hardened packed snow and then pitched it on him.

As his uncle scurried around and hid behind walls of ice, Touya summoned chunks of ice and heaved them at him through punches and kicks, one action flowing effortlessly into the next. He knew as well as his uncle that he could destroy his uncle's long-range attacks too easily and that he would have to get in close to stand making a hit. Close-quarters would be most effective but mid-range would also suffice. Not that Touya intended to let him get anything better as he focused his energy into a concentrated blast and knocked his uncle into a house.

"Uncle!" Touya called, knowing he was aware and able to hear him. "It is time you face the consequences of your cruel actions. Take responsibility. Admit you were wrong. Seek to atone for your wrongdoings and in time the honor of the Winter Tribe will be restored!"

"You speak to me as if I am a disgrace? You are wrong, little nephew," his uncle said as he shambled out of the wreckage. The bindings of his topknot had broken and his hair hung wild, coarse, and twisted about his face, the normal sleek and orderly arrangement of his hair lost. "I have broken no laws and have been devout in my beliefs. I have done nothing wrong."

" _However_ ," he scowled, "if I may confess to one regret, it is that I failed to purge our tribe of its disgrace in its infancy. Unfortunately at that time, the will of the tribe could not see how the smallest wounds, if left untreated, can with time fester and rot the body."

"I am not a disgrace and I am not a sickness, " Touya said, his words assertive. "But even if your opinion does not change, I will assure you of this. That is not everything I am."

As Touya tossed another block of ice, his uncle dived once again behind a wall. Taking control of one of his uncle's walls, Touya sent one crashing into another, his uncle just managing to slip away.

His uncle stirred up another snowstorm. Touya merely had to redirect the storm around himself to clear his vision. Leaping out of the way of his uncle's hail shot, Touya landed outside of the storm. Soon as his feet touched the ground again, his feet were encased in ice and before he could break through it, he felt the bite of ice sting his back.

Yes, the pain in his back was terrible but the pain in his left side as his uncle kicked him in his gash was worse. Touya lay tossed to the ground, open mouth in a silent scream, his glowing aura of energy gone, and clutched his side as he tried to keep still and not roll about from the sharp, pulsing bolts of pain.

Touya looked up at his uncle and saw his right hand sheathed in blue ice, the glistening claws wet with blood. His uncle smirked and said in an absolutely uncaring voice, "I see you have not recovered from the other night. What a pity…" He kicked him again.

Touya wanted to get back up. He needed to get back up. He would be an easy kill if he stayed on the ground but Touya could not get up, not with the paralyzing bursts of pain from his wounded side and his uncle fixated on his gash to a wicked gleeful extent. He had to get up. Blood leaked from his gash and his back and made his kimono cling to his body.

"No, no, young nephew, do not get up," his uncle said nonchalant as he stomped on his back as he struggled to rise. "Bowing on the ground is your natural state."

As his uncle readied to stomp him again, Touya curled up and created a shell on his back. His uncle probably thought nothing of the thin layer of ice and doubted its defensive capabilities so he went ahead and dropped his foot. Onto a raised bed of spikes.

Groaning in pain, his uncle stumbled back, giving Touya time to stand. Splitting the shell into four pieces, Touya tossed each one, the ice shattering either on his uncle's hastily-summoned shields or on his body.

Touya drove his uncle further and further back, forcing him into awkward circling dance-like steps to evade his ice spikes seemingly randomly but quite intentionally rising out of the ground.

"Uncle, do you see now?" Touya said as his uncle, weaving about, stared up at him with a rare measure of surprise on his typically tightly-restrained face. "I am no mere apprentice. I am a master in my own right. I have fought my way and learned on my own without your tutelage. I am not weak and I will not give up."

"You are no master," his uncle growled. "You are a sneak and a thief. Your so-called tricks bastardize my elegant art. You have corrupted and twisted our traditions to serve your disgraceful intentions. From this day forth, you are expelled."

"I will manage," Touya said calmly as a hardened snowball splattered across the right side of his uncle's face and knocked him down. "For there is nothing I need to learn from you."

As he shook the remaining slush out of his scraggy, violently tousled hair, his uncle slowly stood back up, wobbling in his steps as he struggled to find his balance. Slightly hunched over, his uncle glared at him and bared his teeth. It was then Touya saw that the outward man at last matched the beast within.

His dark green energy as blinding as the glare of sunlight on a snowy field, his chest raised and his head thrown back, his uncle roared, flaring his energy in a broad, encompassing burst. Knowing he could not dodge it, Touya raised a shield and braced himself. Their energies met, crackling and shooting arcs upon impact. And though there was some pull and push between their forces, it became clear to them and everyone watching that their energy levels were evenly matched.

There was one advantage his uncle did bear over Touya. He was as strong as him, yes, and he was the first person who could ever stand as his equal in power and skill but Touya did not yet possess the stamina to maintain his power for an extended time period. His shield faltered, allowing his uncle's blast to send him flying into the ground, gash side first. Shaking off the pain and confusion, Touya found his uncle suddenly in front of him. He grabbed him by the kimono and lifted him off the ground.

His energy glinting in his gray eyes, his uncle leaned in and whispered low and dark, "I could chill the air you breathe and slice you up from the inside and no one would mourn you," and then his face twisted into a wicked smirk, "…except, perhaps, your muck elf."

The water in his eyes churning like rapids, Touya sharpened his stare into a frigid glare. Jaw tight, body shaking in rage, he had heard that stupid slur against Jin and his tribe and done nothing about it for the last time. His uncle and Hyou, they did not know him. They had no right to speak of him as such and treat him and his people like a tribe of disgraces.

His spirit energy once again flushed through his body and pooled into his hand. Touya did not have a plan or knew what he was going to do next. His thoughts merely circled around his rage, his desire to defend and protect Jin and his tribe, and the urge to stop his uncle once and for all. Sensing the moisture around him, Touya froze it. He did not care what the ice formed, only that he hoped it would be useful. Touya watched as his uncle's smirk collapsed into the purest expression of terror ever made.

He dropped Touya, faltering a bit but otherwise standing strong on his feet. His uncle stumbled back, tripped, and fell. His body quivered violently and his mouth hung open. High choking gasps were all he could make. Touya did not know what to make of his uncle's behavior. What sort of bizarre trap was he trying to pull? Hyou was far more likely to try such a feint, not his uncle. Was he truly that desperate to resort to such cowardly ruses?

And then at last sensing the pathway of his energy, Touya realized this was no act. His uncle was truly shaking on the ground, wide-eyed in terror, the stark pallor of his skin growing further ashen. The moisture he had sensed and froze with little thought had been the water in his uncle's blood.

His heart pounded in his chest as he saw his uncle grip at his own, his other hand clawing at Touya. His uncle spoke and his lips seemed to form words but they were soundless. His uncle could not believe what he had done. His tribe, looking on in fear, could not believe what he had done. And neither could Touya. He had never once thought he could affect the moisture and manipulate ice inside a person's body. It was a power not even his uncle, the Ice Master knew how to wield.

But Touya could. And he knew with a single clench of his hand that he could form a spike and pierce his uncle's heart from the inside. He could kill him with a twitch.

 _I could kill him,_ Touya repeated to himself as he watched his uncle writhe and gasp and struggle for life. For once, his uncle understood the fear and hopelessness he had inflicted on Touya all his life. And for the first time, Touya saw not the imposing, conniving, wolf-eyed, frozen-fisted authority of their tribe but a frail, scared man face to face with his impeding death.

"I can kill you," Touya said, "but I will not. I will admit there is no person in all of the village and the mists I hate more than you and I am fed up with being your scapegoat and being constantly told how worthless I am and beaten for every little fault. But though I hate you, unlike you, I will not allow that hate to consume me. Even though I believe it would be better for this tribe if you died, doing so would make me no different than you and I refuse to deign myself to your level. I have my honor."

Touya released him, his uncle laying back and calming somewhat. From out of his surrounding watching tribe came Hyou's voice calling for his father.

Pushing through the crowd, Hyou ran out and dropped to his father's side. Struggling to do so, he laid his father's arm around his shoulders and tried to help him up. His face twisted into a snarl, he growled at Hyou and struck at him with his ice claw. Hyou cried out and dropped his father. Staring at his father and shaking in fear and confusion, Hyou raised a hand in disbelief to his slashed right cheek, blood pouring down his face from the cuts. As his father needled a digusted glare into him, Hyou fought to not cry.

"Uncle," Touya called, finding his attention, "I hope you enjoy living in your cold, gloomy darkness for I am moving on to bask in the light."

Not caring how his uncle contorted his face in displeasure, Touya turned to leave. And as he walked, he noticed their young children all raising a hand and making a traditional gesture. It was a combination of a greeting, a show of respect, and recognition of one's presence and status. It was a sign only given to the Ice Master.

If he had any regrets about his leaving, it was the future of the youngest children. He worried what would become of them and truthfully he wished he could take them with him and let them have a childhood. But neither their parents would allow him nor the children would want to be separated from them. Much as he wished not to, he had to leave them behind.

Meeting the gaze of one little boy, the one he had saved from Hyou's beating, Touya tried to convey through his eyes how sorry he was that he could not stay. The boy surprised him with a firm nod and an incredible sense of understanding and acceptance that Touya could no longer remain in the Winter Tribe.

As he left the last member of his tribe in the distance, though he had his worries, Touya had the impression the children would manage well enough without him.

-o-

At last, Jin left the brute planted face-first into the ground. The stupid boar had given him trouble and wouldn't give up but finally Jin had made sure he wasn't getting back up. Now just hoping he was not too late, Jin soared off to the Winter Tribe's side of the village.

He found the streets empty, not that was unusual for him. Still he knew this time it was different. He knew the Winter Tribe was not simply hiding in their homes. He knew they were gone. Jin glided as quickly as he could to the spot where he had sensed what he feared had been Touya and his uncle's flaring energies. Again the streets were empty and the only sign a fight had happened was a pair of man-sized holes through the side of a home and a meetinghouse.

Walking about impatiently as he tried to sort out what happened, he cursed the stupid bastard for holding him up. It was his fault he hadn't been here for Touya and saw what happened and…and… Face grimacing as he fought back anger and tears, Jin prayed to all the fair winds that Touya was okay.

Jin raced off toward the forest. Maybe they hadn't gone left and Touya was there with them and he could see if he was all right and beg him to stay with him. Maybe his bad feelings were unfounded. Maybe it hadn't been Touya and his uncle's energies he had sensed at all. Jin landed in the forest at just the right time to see the last of the Winter Tribe's murky silhouettes fade into the mist.

For once, Jin truly felt like crying. He felt like heading off straight into the mists after Touya, not caring if he could never come back or what would happen to him. Only thing he wanted in this world was to be with Touya and living in a world without him wouldn't be much of a life. He would be stuck living in never-ending half-life with all the happiness to come to him edged with sadness because Touya wouldn't be there to be happy with him.

" _Touya!_ " he shouted, hoping he would hear him from the mist and be able to turn back before the barrier accepted him and locked him in the between world. "Don't go!"

The sound of his voice carried and echoed slightly before fading back to the typical bird chirps, crackling branches, and wind-rustled leaves. Jin waited, his head bowing ever so lower as he waited and Touya did not seem to be coming back.

"So this is it…" Jin mumbled to himself.

"The beginning of everything," he heard Touya say.

Ears perked, heart racing, Jin hoped he hadn't just imagined that. In a flurry of energy, Jin looked around and at last found Touya bracing himself against a tree. Mad with laughter in his joy, Jin rushed over and swooped him up into a hug. At Touya's pained request that he be careful of where he held him, Jin readily apologized, punctuating his words with plenty of short kisses.

"But your note…" Jin said, scratching his head in confusion. "Said ya were goin' an' not ta come, but you're here an'—gah, me head's achin'."

"I am sorry, Jin, but aside my feelings for you, the note was a lie. I did not wish to lie to you, however I knew I had to so you would not follow me and you could stay happy."

Jin placed a kiss of Touya's forehead and then grinned cheekily, "Should've known I was going ta look for ya anyway, Toy. I tried to then got held back but I was on me way to findin' ya. 'Cause the only place I'm happy anymore be with you."

"But staying with you would not have been as simple as remaining behind. My uncle would never have allowed it. He would have came for me and everything would have been much worse for his presence," Touya said. "So I went to him and faced him in front of our elders. Fighting him was the only way I could have gained my freedom. I was prepared to fight and I was prepared to die. I told you I was leaving because I would rather you feel sad but have hope I was okay than to know of and grieve my death. I did not wish to lie to you but I never thought I would live to see you again."

"But ya did," Jin said, grinning.

"Rather unexpectedly, yes," Touya returned a small but all the same a happy smile, "but a very happy accident nonetheless."

"Happy, that I'll say, but it be not an accident, Toy. Not at all."

Careful of the placement and pressure on his wounds, Jin picked Touya up and carried him. Touya wrapped his arms around his neck.

"All right. We'll get ya patched up, Miyo'll get ya filled up, an' then you an' me can play kiss up. …Ah, I ain't waitin'." Jin smashed his lips against Touya's cheek, eliciting a short laugh out of him.

As they headed back to the village and Jin walked through a blanket of snowdrops, Touya laid his head in the crook of Jhis neck and shoulder. Jin felt him slip a slender finger beneath his shirt collar and rub circles on his neck. Those eyes bluer than the sky shined as he stared into his shirt blissfully before he slowly closed them, smiling in pure contentment as he relaxed in his arms.

Jin knew that for now on his Toy would never know fear and never know hurt again. All the suffering in his life was over and gone and there were only good things left for Touya. Lots of bright, warm, beautiful, wonderful, hug and kiss-filled good things. From now and until the end of their days.

And because he knew that, Jin knew Touya would be all right.


End file.
